''Wangisuchus'' 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 archosauriform reptile from the

Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided in chronostratigraphy. The Middle Triassic spans the time between Ma and ...

of China that is known from fragmentary fossil jaw bones. These bones were found at the Hsishihwa locality in the upper

Ermaying Formation The Ermaying Formation is a sedimentary succession of Anisian (Middle Triassic) age. It is found in the Shaanxi Province of China. It is composed of an up to 600 m thick sequence of mudstone and sandstone. It is famous for its fossils of tetrapods. ...

, which dates to the late

Anisian In the geologic timescale, the Anisian is the lower stage or earliest age of the Middle Triassic series or epoch and lasted from million years ago until million years ago. The Anisian Age succeeds the Olenekian Age (part of the Lower Triassic Ep ...

stage about 242 million years ago. ''Wangisuchus'' was named in 1964 by Chinese paleontologist

Yang Zhongjian Yang Zhongjian, also Yang Chung-chien (; 1 June 1897 – 15 January 1979), courtesy name Keqiang (), also known as C.C. (Chung Chien) Young, was a Chinese paleontologist and zoologist. He was one of China's foremost vertebrate paleontologists. H ...

, who described a single species, ''Wangisuchus tzeyii'', on the basis of these bones.

Classification

Yang classified ''Wangisuchus'' in the family

Euparkeriidae Euparkeriidae is an extinct family of small carnivorous archosauriforms which lived from the Early Triassic to the Middle Triassic (Anisian). While most other early archosauriforms walked on four limbs, euparkeriids were probably facultative ...

, which also includes the much better known ''

Euparkeria ''Euparkeria'' (; meaning "Parker's good animal", named in honor of W.K. Parker) is an extinct genus of archosauriform from the Middle Triassic of South Africa. It was a small reptile that lived between 245-230 million years ago, and was close ...

'' from the

Early Triassic The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic Period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic Series, which is a un ...

of South Africa. He diagnosed ''Wangisuchus'' by the following characters: long and low shape of the maxilla; pointed posterior process of the maxilla; rounded anterior margin of the maxilla; thecodont tooth implantation; crurotarsal (crocodile-like) structure of the ankle. Later authors noted that a

calcaneum In humans and many other primates, the calcaneus (; from the Latin ''calcaneus'' or ''calcaneum'', meaning heel) or heel bone is a bone of the tarsus of the foot which constitutes the heel. In some other animals, it is the point of the hock. St ...

, or ankle bone, referred to ''Wangisuchus'' by Yang more closely resembles that of a suchian archosaur, although they didn't discuss whether IVPP V.2701 might be a suchian or euparkeriid. In their review of putative euparkeriids from China, Richard Butler and colleagues concluded that ''Wangisuchus'' is a ''

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...

'' at Archosauriformes indeterminate because its holotype lacked diagnostic characters, even though the thecodont tooth implantation pointed to a closer relationship to Archosauria than to ''

Proterosuchus ''Proterosuchus'' is an extinct genus of archosauriform reptiles that lived during the Early Triassic. It contains three valid species: the type species ''P. fergusi'' and the referred species ''P. alexanderi'' and ''P. goweri''. All three spec ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7967880 Prehistoric archosauriforms Prehistoric reptile genera Anisian genera Middle Triassic reptiles of Asia Triassic China Fossils of China Fossil taxa described in 1964 Taxa named by Yang Zhongjian