A new species of Araripesuchus with durophagous dentition increases the ecological disparity among uruguaysuchid crocodyliforms

FERNÁNDEZ DUMONT MARÍA LUCILA; POL DIEGO; BONA PAULA; APESTEGUÍA SEBASTIÁN

JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC PALAEONTOLOGY

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2024

1477-2019

Notosuchia is a group of Cretaceous crocodyliforms with terrestrial habits that lived during the Cretaceous, within this group Uruguaysuchidae is so far represented by eight species, six of them clustered in the genus Araripesuchus. Two species of this genus, A. patagonicus and A. buitreraensis, come from different localities in Patagonia (Argentina) from the Candeleros Formation (Cenomanian age). Here we present a third species of Araripesuchus from this formation. The new species comes from the same locality as Araripesuchus buitreraensis, although they differ in numerous features including the presence of different molariform teeth. The new species was included in a phylogenetic analysis and, coinciding with previous analyses, Uruguaysuchidae is recovered as monophyletic and placed within Notosuchia as the sister clade of Peirosauridae. Uruguaysuchidae includes all species of Araripesuchus as well as Anatosuchus minor and Uruguaysuchus aznarezi. The new species adds new information to the ecological diversity of the group its bulbous molariforms with a quadrangular occlusal surface bounded by mamelons is interpreted as indicative of a durophagous diet, suggesting the presence of a niche partitioning between the two sympatric species A. manzanensis and A. buitreraensis.