''Laevisuchus'' (, "light crocodile") is a

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 ...

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

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 ...

from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

. Its remains were discovered by

Charles Alfred Matley Charles Alfred Matley (1866–1947) was a British paleontologist and geologist in India, the British West Indies and Wales. Matley was educated at Birmingham University, and earned a doctorate in geology (D.Sc.) from the University of London in J ...

near

Jabalpur Jabalpur is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. According to the 2011 census, it is the third-largest urban agglomeration in Madhya Pradesh and the country's 38th-largest urban agglomeration. J ...

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...

deposits in the

Lameta Formation The Lameta Formation, also known as the Infratrappean Beds, is a sedimentary geological formation found in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, India, associated with the Deccan Traps. It is of Maastrichtian age (Late Cretaceous), and is nota ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and were named and described by

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Friedrich von Huene Friedrich von Huene, born Friedrich Richard von Hoinigen, (March 22, 1875 – April 4, 1969) was a German paleontologist who renamed more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe. He also made key contributions about v ...

and Matley in 1933. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

is ''Laevisuchus indicus''. The generic name is derived from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''laevis'', "light" and the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian crocodile god, '' Soukhos''. The specific name means "Indian" in

. It is known only from three cervical

vertebrae The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic i ...

(GSI K20/613, GSI K20/614 and GSI K27/696) and a dorsal vertebra (GSI K27/588). A

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 ...

was not assigned by Huene and Matley and a

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

has never been chosen from the

syntype In biological nomenclature, a syntype is any one of two or more biological types that is listed in a description of a taxon where no holotype was designated. Precise definitions of this and related terms for types have been established as part of ...

s. All remains except GSI K27/696 were lost; GSI K20/613 was rediscovered in 2012.

Description

''Laevisuchus'' was a small bipedal carnivore. In 1998 David Lambert estimated it was some long, high, and approximately in weight.Lambert, D. (1998). ''The Wordsworth Book of Dinosaurs'', Britain: Mackays of Chatham PLC.

Classification

''Laevisuchus'' was originally classified by Huene as a

coelurid Coeluridae is a historically unnatural group of generally small, carnivorous dinosaurs from the late Jurassic Period. For many years, any small Jurassic or Cretaceous theropod that did not belong to one of the more specialized families recogniz ...

due to the similarity of its vertebrae with those of ''

Aristosuchus ''Aristosuchus'' is a genus of small coelurosaurian dinosaur whose name was derived from the Greek ἄριστος (meaning bravest, best, noblest) and ''σουχος'' (the Ancient Greek corruption of the name of the Egyptian crocodile-headed go ...

''. However, an analysis in 2004 has shown it to be an

abelisaur Abelisauroidea is typically regarded as a Cretaceous group, though the earliest abelisauridae remains are known from the Middle Jurassic of Argentina (classified as the species Eoabelisaurus mefi) and possibly Madagascar (fragmentary remains o ...

oid because of its long epipophyses, a pair of foramina on the centrum, and low and triangular neural spines. The vertebrae specifically resemble those of

noasaurid Noasauridae is an extinct family of theropod dinosaurs belonging to the group Ceratosauria. They were closely related to the short-armed abelisaurids, although most noasaurids had much more traditional body types generally similar to other ther ...

s like ''

Masiakasaurus ''Masiakasaurus'' is a genus of small predatory noasaurid theropod dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. In Malagasy, ''masiaka'' means "vicious"; thus, the genus name means "vicious lizard". The type species, ''Masiakasaurus knopfl ...

'' and ''

Noasaurus ''Noasaurus'' ("Northwestern Argentina lizard") is a genus of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaur genus from the late Campanian-Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) of Argentina. The type and only species is ''N. leali''. Discovery and naming In the m ...

'' due to having more anteriorly placed neural spines and posteriorly reduced

epipophyses Epipophyses are bony projections of the cervical vertebrae found in archosauromorphs, particularly dinosaurs (including some basal birds). These paired processes sit above the postzygapophyses on the rear of the vertebral neural arch. Their morp ...

Tykoski, R.S. & Rowe, T. (2004). "Ceratosauria". In: Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., & Osmolska, H. (Eds.) ''The Dinosauria'' (2nd edition). Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 47–70

References

External links

Dinosaurier-Info
Late Cretaceous dinosaurs Abelisaurs Dinosaurs of India and Madagascar Fossil taxa described in 1933 Taxa named by Friedrich von Huene Taxa named by Charles Alfred Matley {{theropod-stub

Description

Classification

See also

References

External links