''Dolichochampsa'' 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 of
eusuchian
crocodylomorph
Crocodylomorpha is a group of pseudosuchian archosaurs that includes the crocodilians and their extinct relatives. They were the only members of Pseudosuchia to survive the end-Triassic extinction.
During Mesozoic and early Cenozoic times, cro ...
. It is the
type genus and only member of the family Dolichochampsidae.
Fossils have been found in the
Yacoraite Formation
The Yacoraite Formation is a largely Mesozoic geologic formation. The deposits of this formation mainly date from the Maastrichtian of the Upper Cretaceous, but the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–T boundary) runs right through this formation ...
of
Argentina and the
El Molino Formation
The El Molino Formation is a Maastrichtian geologic formation pertaining to the Puca Group of central Bolivia. The formation comprises fine-grained sandstones and sandy limestones with stromatolites deposited in a shallow marine to lacustrine env ...
of
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
of
Maastrichtian age. It had a distinctive slender snout. Because the material associated with the specimens is so fragmentary, its relationships with other eusuchians remain unknown. Jouve ''et al.'' (2020) assigned ''Dolichochampsa'' to
Gavialoidea, making it the oldest known South American member of this clade.
References
Maastrichtian life
Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of South America
Cretaceous Argentina
Fossils of Argentina
Salta Basin
Cretaceous Bolivia
Fossils of Bolivia
Fossil taxa described in 1980
Taxa named by Zulma Brandoni de Gasparini
Taxa named by Éric Buffetaut
Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera
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