''Lohuecosuchus'' (meaning "Lo Hueco

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...

") 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 ...

of allodaposuchid 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 ...

that lived during 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 ...

(late Campanian to early

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 ...

) in what is now

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and southern

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 ...

Description

The anatomy of the endocranium (

braincase In human anatomy, the neurocranium, also known as the braincase, brainpan, or brain-pan is the upper and back part of the skull, which forms a protective case around the brain. In the human skull, the neurocranium includes the calvaria or skul ...

) of ''L. megadontos'' was found to be similar to crown- crocodylians, revealing that the acute sense of olfaction and low frequency hearing found in living crocodylians likely originated along the stem-line.

Classification

''Lohuecosuchus'' is a member of the

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

Allodaposuchidae, a group of eusuchians that lived in southern Europe during the

. Two species of ''Lohuecosuchus'' were described in 2015. 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 ...

, ''Lohuecosuchus megadontos'', was recovered from the

Lo Hueco Lo may refer to any of the following: Arts and entertainment * '' Lo!'', the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort * L.O., a fictional character in the Playhouse Disney show Happy Monster Band * ''Lo'' (film), a 2009 indep ...

fossil site of the Villalba de la Sierra Formation in the municipality of Fuentes, Cuenca Province at Castilla-La Mancha of central

. The species name ''megadontos'' is composed of the Greek words "mega" (meaning big) and "odon" (meaning tooth), in reference to the relatively large size of the teeth. The second species, ''Lohuecosuchus mechinorum'', was found at the

Fox-Amphoux Fox-Amphoux (; oc, Fòs Amfós) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in south-eastern France. As with many smaller villages off the beaten track and closer to the coast, the village perché of Fox-Amphou ...

fossil site of the Grès à Reptiles Formation in the Department of Var in southeastern

, and was named after the discoverers of the

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 ...

, Patrick and Annie Mechin. ''Lohuecosuchus'' was both synchronic and

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...

(lived at the same time and place) with another allodaposuchid species, '' Agaresuchus fontisensis''. ''Lohuecosuchus'' is also closely related to '' Allodaposuchus'', another genus from southern Europe that includes several species. However, a 2021

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 ...

analysis considering additional postcranial material recovered '' Allodaposuchus'' as

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 ...

with respect to '' Agaresuchus'' and ''Lohuecosuchus'', and suggested that both ''Agaresuchus'' and ''Lohuecosuchus'' belong within the genus ''Allodaposuchus'' proper, which would render them as

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 ...

s of ''Allodaposuchus''. The cladogram from Blanco's 2021 study is shown below:

References

Neosuchians Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera Late Cretaceous reptiles of Europe Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Europe Campanian life Maastrichtian life Cretaceous France Fossils of France Cretaceous Spain Fossils of Spain Fossil taxa described in 2015 {{paleo-archosaur-stub