''Procerosuchus'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

loricata Loricata is a clade of archosaur reptiles that includes crocodilians and some of their Triassic relatives, such as '' Postosuchus'' and ''Prestosuchus''. More specifically, Loricata includes Crocodylomorpha (the persistent archosaur subset which ...

n archosaur. Fossils have been collected from the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch of the Triassic Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch and followed by the Early Jurassic Epoch. ...

Santa Maria Formation The Santa Maria Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is primarily Carnian in age (Late Triassic), and is notable for its fossils of cynodonts, "rauisuchian" pseudosuchians, and early dinosaurs and other ...

Geopark A geopark is a protected area with internationally significant geology within which sustainable development is sought and which includes tourism, conservation, education and research concerning not just geology but other relevant sciences. In 2 ...

of Paleorrota, Rio Grande do Sul,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, which is

Carnian The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Triassic series (stratigraphy), Series (or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Triassic Epoch (reference date), Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227 m ...

in age. The genus was first described by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

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 in 1942.

Classification

Initially, ''Procerosuchus'' was regarded as a stagonolepidid along with the genera '' Rauisuchus'' and ''

Prestosuchus ''Prestosuchus'' (meaning "Prestes crocodile") is an extinct genus of pseudosuchian in the group Loricata, which also includes '' Saurosuchus'' and '' Postosuchus''. It has historically been referred to as a " rauisuchian", and was the defining ...

''. Later, it was reassigned by Huene to the family Rauisuchidae.

Alfred Sherwood Romer Alfred Sherwood Romer (December 28, 1894 – November 5, 1973) was an American paleontologist and biologist and a specialist in vertebrate evolution. Biography Alfred Romer was born in White Plains, New York, the son of Harry Houston Romer an ...

first considered ''Procerosuchus'' to be a possible ornithosuchid, but later assigned it to the family

Prestosuchidae Prestosuchidae (in its widest usage) is a polyphyletic grouping of carnivorous archosaurs that lived during the Triassic. They were large active terrestrial apex predators, ranging from around in length. They succeeded the Erythrosuchidae as th ...

, which he constructed in 1966. In 1972, Romer assigned ''Procerosuchus'' as a possible member of the family

Proterochampsidae Proterochampsidae is a family of proterochampsian archosauriforms. Proterochampsids may have filled an ecological niche similar to modern crocodiles, and had a general crocodile-like appearance. They lived in what is now South America in the Mid ...

. Krebs (1976) considered it to be a rauisuchid, as did Chatterjee (1985) and Carroll (1988). ''Procerosuchus'' has been suggested to be member of the subfamily Rauisuchinae and the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

Rauisuchini. However, the genus has not yet been included in any

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 of rauisuchians, and its classification remains uncertain. The alpha taxonomy of rauisuchians is still debated (the order itself is now considered paraphyletic) and the anatomy of many taxa, including ''Procerosuchus'', has not yet been thoroughly described. ''Procerosuchus'' does not seem to belong to a recently identified monophyletic grouping of rauisuchians termed Clade X (and now known as

Poposauroidea Poposauroidea is a clade of advanced pseudosuchians (archosaurs closer to crocodilians than to dinosaurs). It includes poposaurids, shuvosaurids, ctenosauriscids, and other unusual pseudosuchians such as ''Qianosuchus'' and ''Lotosaurus''. How ...

), which includes poposaurids and

ctenosauriscids Ctenosauriscidae is an extinct family of pseudosuchian archosaurs within the clade Poposauroidea. Ctenosauriscids existed in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America during the Early Triassic to the Middle Triassic period (latest Olenekian to An ...

References

External links

''Procerosuchus''
in the

Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms. History The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...

Rauisuchids Late Triassic reptiles of South America Triassic Brazil Fossils of Brazil Santa Maria Formation Fossil taxa described in 1942 Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera {{paleo-archosaur-stub