''Aggiosaurus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

geosaurine Geosaurinae is a subfamily of metriorhynchid crocodyliforms from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous (Bathonian - Aptian) of Europe, North America and South America. Named by Richard Lydekker, in 1889, it contains the metriorhynchid ...

metriorhynchid Metriorhynchidae is an extinct family of specialized, aquatic metriorhynchoid crocodyliforms from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous period (Bajocian to early Aptian) of Europe, North America and South America. The name Metriorhynchidae ...

crocodyliform Crocodyliformes is a clade of crurotarsan archosaurs, the group often traditionally referred to as "crocodilians". They are the first members of Crocodylomorpha to possess many of the features that define later relatives. They are the only pseudo ...

known from the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

(late Oxfordian stage) of

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, southeastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It contains a single species, ''Aggiosaurus nicaeensis'', which was named by H. Ambayrac in

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos (1913), Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not ven ...

.H. Ambayrac. (1913). Découverte d'une mâchoire de reptile jurassique iscovery of a jaw from a Jurassic reptile ''Bulletin Mensuel des Naturalistes des Alpes-Maritimes'' 15:65-68

History of discovery

''Aggiosaurus'' is known only from its

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

, an unnumbered, poorly preserved

upper jaw The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

collected by H. Ambayrac in 1912, Maury, E. (1915). New observations on the Jurassic reptile localities on the road from Cap d'Ail to La Turbie. ''Riviera Scientifique. Bulletin de l'Association des Naturalistes de Nice et des Alpes-Maritimes'' 2(1):4-6 preserved in

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

which is now housed in the

Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Nice The Natural History Museum of Nice ( French: ''Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Nice'') is a French natural-history museum located in Nice. Origins The museum was founded in 1846 by Jean Baptiste Vérany (1800–1865), a French pharmacist ...

. It was collected from the late Oxfordian-aged locality of Cap d’Aggio-La Turbie, in

. It was initially described as a

megalosaurid Megalosauridae is a monophyletic family of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs within the group Megalosauroidea. Appearing in the Middle Jurassic, megalosaurids were among the first major radiation of large theropod dinosaurs. They were a relative ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

by Ambayrac (1913). Later, Buffetaut (1982) demonstrated that it was in fact a

, closely related to, if not a member of ''

Dakosaurus ''Dakosaurus'' is an extinct genus of crocodylomorph within the family Metriorhynchidae that lived during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. It was large, with teeth that were serrated and compressed lateromedially (flattened from side to ...

''.Buffetaut E. (1982). ''Aggiosaurus nicaeensis'' Ambayrac, 1913, from the Upper Jurassic of south-eastern France: A marine crocodilian, not a dinosaur. ''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte'' (8): 469-475. As the type specimen is poorly preserved it is sometimes considered to be a

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...

. Young & Andrade (2009) suggested that ''Aggiosaurus'' is a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

of ''

'', and that ''A. nicaeensis'' is referrable to ''Dakosaurus'' as a distinct species provisionally. They based this referral on its unusually large dentition (apicobasal length in excess of ) that thought to be unique to species of ''Dakosaurus'' among all other

thalattosuchia Thalattosuchia is a clade of marine crocodylomorphs from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous that had a cosmopolitan distribution. They are colloquially referred to as marine crocodiles or sea crocodiles, though they are not members of Cro ...

ns. ''Aggiosaurus'' actually has the largest dentition of any known metriorhynchid (up to in apicobasal length), although further

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

analyses found that large robust teeth present also in other geosaurins, such as '' Torvoneustes''. Young ''et al.'' (2012) resurrected the genus name ''

Plesiosuchus ''Plesiosuchus'' is an extinct genus of geosaurine metriorhynchid crocodyliform known from the Late Jurassic (late Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian stage) of Dorset, England and possibly also Spain. It contains a single species, ''Plesiosuchus ...

'' for ''D. manselii'' (which also present this trait) as their phylogenetic analysis found a

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

''Dakosaurus'' and suggested more basal position for it within

Geosaurini Geosaurinae is a subfamily of metriorhynchid crocodyliforms from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous (Bathonian - Aptian) of Europe, North America and South America. Named by Richard Lydekker, in 1889, it contains the metriorhynchi ...

than previously thought. As the presence of unusually large dentition (apicobasal length in excess of ) was considered to be

homoplastic Homoplasy, in biology and phylogenetics, is the term used to describe a Phenotypic trait, feature that has been gained or lost independently in separate lineages over the course of evolution. This is different from Homology (biology), homology, wh ...

among geosaurins, ''Aggiosaurus'' cannot be considered a junior synonym of either ''Dakosaurus'' or ''Plesiosuchus''.

Etymology

''Aggiosaurus'' was first described and named by H. Ambayrac in

, and the type species is ''Aggiosaurus nicaeensis''. The generic name is derived from the name of its type locality, Cap d'Aggio-La Turbie, and from "''"'' (), meaning "lizard" in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honors

Nice, France Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

, in which it was discovered.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2711540 Fossils of France Fossil taxa described in 1913 Late Jurassic crocodylomorphs Prehistoric marine crocodylomorphs Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera