''Pabwehshi'' (meaning "Pab ormationbeast wehshi" in Urdu">Urdu.html" ;"title="wehshi" in Urdu">wehshi" in Urdu) is an extinct genus of mesoeucrocodylian. It is holotype, based on Geological Survey of Pakistan, GSP-UM 2000, a partial snout and corresponding lower jaw elements, with another snout assigned to it. These specimens were found in

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 ...

-age

Upper 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 ...

rocks of the

Pab Formation The Pab Formation is a Late Cretaceous geologic Formation (geology), formation in Balochistan, in western Pakistan. It is dominated by Sandstone, with minor mudstone and shale components. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been reco ...

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, and represent the first diagnostic crocodyliform

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s from Cretaceous rocks of

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

. ''Pabwehshi'' had serrated interlocking teeth in its snout that formed a "zig-zag" cutting edge. ''Pabwehshi'' was named in 2001 by

Jeffrey A. Wilson Jeffrey A. Wilson, also known as JAW, is a Paleontology, paleontologist and professor of geology, geological sciences and assistant curator at the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan. His Doctor of Philosophy, doctoral dissert ...

and colleagues. 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 ''P. pakistanensis'', in reference to the nation where it was found. It was traditionally classified as a

baurusuchid Baurusuchidae is a Gondwanan Family (biology), family of mesoeucrocodylians that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It is a group of terrestrial hypercarnivorous crocodilians from South America (Argentina and Brazil) and possibly Pakistan. Baurusu ...

closely related to '' Cynodontosuchus'' and '' Baurusuchus''. Larsson and Sues (2007) found close affinity between ''Pabwehshi'' and the

Peirosauridae Peirosauridae is a Gondwanan family of mesoeucrocodylians that lived during the Cretaceous period. It was a clade of terrestrial crocodyliforms that evolved a rather dog-like form, and were terrestrial carnivores. It was phylogenetically defined ...

within

Sebecia Sebecia is an extinct clade of mesoeucrocodylian crocodyliforms that includes peirosaurids and sebecids. It was first constructed in 2007 to include ''Hamadasuchus'', Peirosauridae, and ''Sebecus''. It was initially considered to be the sister ta ...

. Montefeltro ''et al.'' ''Pabwehshi'' has a sagittal torus on its maxillary palatal shelves – a character that is absent in baurusuchids – but they did not include ''Pabwehshi'' in their phylogenetic analysis.

References

Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Asia Taxa named by Jeffrey A. Wilson Fossil taxa described in 2001 Sebecosuchians Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera {{paleo-archosaur-stub