New Jurassic and Cretaceous neosuchians from the Sahara add to Africa´s remarkable crocodyliform diversity and its paleogeographic connection with northern landmasses

POL, D.; SERENO, P.C.

Congreso; 79° Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology; 2019

New fossils discovered in Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks in Niger and Morocco add significant diversity to the neosuchian record for Africa and additional complexity to its paleogeographic history. Jurassic forms include the first African goniopholidids, two new genera from the Tiouraren Formation (? Middle Jurassic) of Niger. One is known from a complete skull that exhibits the classic external maxillary fossa and other cranial features highly reminiscent of Laurasian Goniopholis. The second goniopholidid has a narrow cranium and elongate snout, subdued surface texture and spaced maxillary teeth of similar size. The goniopholidids present another intriguing connection between Africa and Laurasia. There are three new Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) genera in addition to new material of the bizarre flat-skulled neosuchian Laganosuchus. The new forms include a large species similar to the Moroccan genus ?Hammadasuchus,? a large-bodied peirosaurid rivaling Sarcosuchus in size with a transversely compressed snout and diminutive postcranium, and an agile smooth-skulled, long-limbed notosuchian lacking body armor. Together these new African genera, along with those described previously from Niger and Morocco, document an extremely diverse crocodyliform assemblage in the latter half of the Mesozoic, comparable to that in South America. The new neosuchians add further complexity to African biogeographic associations, linking to southern Europe in the Middle Jurassic and to Madagascar in the Late Cretaceous.