Libycosuchus

Libycosuchus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 95 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Holotype skull and jaw
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauria
Clade:	Pseudosuchia
Clade:	Crocodylomorpha
Clade:	Crocodyliformes
Clade:	†Notosuchia
Clade:	†Eunotosuchia
Genus:	†Libycosuchus Stromer 1914
Species:	†L. brevirostris
Binomial name
†Libycosuchus brevirostris Stromer, 1914
Synonyms^[citation needed]
Libycosuchus Stromer, 1915 (preoccupied) Lybicosuchus Nascimento and Zaher, 2011 (sic)

Libycosuchus is an extinct genus of North African crocodyliform possibly related to Notosuchus;[1][2] it is part of the monotypic Libycosuchidae[3] and Libycosuchinae.[4] It was terrestrial, living approximately 95 million years ago in the Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Fossil remains have been found in the Bahariya Formation in Egypt,[5] making it contemporaneous with the crocodilian Stomatosuchus, and dinosaurs, including the famous Spinosaurus.[1]

Discovery and naming

The holotype was discovered during the early 1910s by Richard Markgraf, and the type species, L. brevirostis, was named in 1914[6] and described in 1915.[5]

It was one of the few fossils described by Ernst Stromer that wasn't destroyed by the Royal Air Force during the bombing of Munich in 1944.[7]

References

1. Buffetaut, E. 1982. Radiation évolutive, paléoécologie et biogéographie des Crocodiliens mésosuchienes. Mémoires Societé Geologique de France 142: 1–88.
2. P. M. Nascimento and H. Zaher. 2011. The skull of the Upper Cretaceous baurusuchid crocodile Baurusuchus alberoi Nascimento & Zaher 2010, and its phylogenetic affinities. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 163:S116-S131
3. E. Stromer. 1933. Ergebnisse der Forschungsreisen Prof. E. Stromers in den Wüsten Ägyptens. II. Wirbeltierreste der Baharîje-Stufe (unterstes Cenoman). 12. Die procölen Crocodilia. [Results of the expeditions of Professor E. Stromer in the Egyptian deserts. II. Vertebrate animal remains from the Baharîje bed (lowest Cenomanian). 12. The procoelous Crocodilia.]. Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Abteilung, Neue Folge 15:1–31
4. B. F. Nopcsa. 1928. The genera of reptiles. Palaeobiologica 1:163–188
5. Original citation: Stromer, E. (1915). Ergebnisse der Forschungsreisen Prof. E. Stromers in den Wüsten Ägyptens. II. Wirbeltier-Reste der Baharîje-Stufe (unterstes Cenoman). 3. Das Original des Theropoden Spinosaurus aegyptiacus nov. gen., nov. spec. Abhandlungen der Königlichen Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse 28(3):1–32.
6. Stromer (1914), p. 28 and 29, fn. 1
7. Tumarkin-Deratzian, Allison; Grandstaff, Barbara S.; Lamanna, Matthew; Smith, Joshua B. (September 2004). "New material of Libycosuchus brevirostris from the Cenomanian Bahariya Formation of Egypt". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 24 (3): 123A. Retrieved 3 November 2020.