''Mystriosuchus'' (meaning "spoon-crocodile")
Retrieved on May 25th, 2008. 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 ...

phytosaur Phytosaurs (Φυτόσαυροι in greek) are an extinct group of large, mostly semiaquatic Late Triassic archosauriform reptiles. Phytosaurs belong to the order Phytosauria. Phytosauria and Phytosauridae are often considered to be equivalent g ...

that lived in 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. ...

(middle Norian) in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. It was first named by Eberhard Fraas in 1896, and includes three

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

: ''M. westphali'', ''M. steinbergeri'' and 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 specime ...

, ''M. planirostris''.Hungerbühler, A. 2002. The Late Triassic phylosaur ''Mystriosuchus westphali'', with a revision of the genus. ''Palaeontology'' 45(2): 377-418.

Description

''Mystriosuchus planirostris'' measured about , according to a complete skeleton which was found in 1995. The

postcrania Postcrania (postcranium, adjective: postcranial) in zoology and vertebrate paleontology is all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g. of dinosaurs or other extinct tetrapods, consist of partial or isolated sk ...

l anatomy of the skeleton suggests that ''Mystriosuchus'' was more adapted to aquatic life than other known phytosaurs, possessing shorter and more paddle-like limbs as well as just two type of osteoderms as opposed to the higher diversity of other phytosaurs. Cranial morphology is suggestive of a primarily fish eating diet, having long jaws like those of the modern gharials. Several specimens have been recovered from marine fossil sites. A study on phytosaur microwear shows a preference towards softer invertebrates. ''M. planirostris'', as the name implies, has a rather "plain" snout, without osseous ornamentation or crests. ''M. westphali'', on the other hand, has multiple bony crests along the upper jaw, most prominently at the base and tip of the snout. As keratinous crests are known in phytosaurs, it is possible that ''M. planirostris'' had soft tissue ornamentation.

Vertebrae

''Mystriosuchus'' possesses many

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 characteristi ...

, with 25 in the neck and torso, two in the pelvis, and 74 in the tail. The vertebral column is complete and nearly all articulated, although a portion of the tail can only be seen from top view. The vertebrae behind the axis vertebra are platycoelous (one surface flat and one concave), and are approximately rectangular in shape. Because of incomplete preservation, it can't be distinguished where the neck meets the torso, although at least 17 of the 25 vertebrae come from the latter. The trunk vertebrae are lower and wider than the neck vertebrae, but are still lightly built. The pelvic vertebrae have wide ribs which attach to the ilium (largest pelvis bone). The tail is longer than the rest of the body, being 51% of the total length of the taxon. The first 17 vertebrae of the tail are similar to those of the neck and trunk, being platycoelous and subrectangular.

Chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

s are present after the fourth vertebra, but are only loosely attached for the beginning of the tail. At the end of the tail the vertebrae become more slanted, and the chevrons form an inverted 'T' shape, which is not seen in other phytosaurs but in sauropterygians or some

crocodilians Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage) and are the closest living ...

Classification

''Mystriosuchus'' used to be placed in its own subfamily, Mystriosuchidae,von Huene, F. 1915. On reptiles of the New Mexican Trias in the Cope Collection. ''Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History'' 34: 485-507.Long, R.A. & Murry, P.A. 1995. Late Triassic (Carnian and Norian) tetrapods from the southwestern United States. ''Bulletin of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science'' 4 254 pp. but subsequent cladistic analysis grouped it with other members of Pseudopalatinae, despite having several physical differences from most of the genera in this group. Originally considered to be a freshwater genus, a recent specimen from Northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

has shown that some ''Mystriosuchus'' specimens lived a completely marine life.Gozzi, E. & Renesto, S.A. 2003. Complete specimen of ''Mystriosuchus'' (Reptilia, Phytosauria) from the Norian (Late Triassic) of Lombardy (Northern Italy). ''Rivista Italiana Di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia'' 109(3): 475-498. In their paper on ''

Parasuchus ''Parasuchus'' is an extinct genus of basal phytosaur known from the Late Triassic (late Carnian to early Norian stage) of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, India. At its most restricted definition, ''Parasuchus'' contains a single species, ' ...

'', Christian Kammerer and colleagues noted that Mystriosuchini has priority over Pseudopalatinae, so synonymized Pseudopalatinae with Mystriosuchini.Kammerer, C. F., Butler, R. J., Bandyopadhyay, S., Stocker, M. R. (2016), Relationships of the Indian phytosaur Parasuchus hislopi Lydekker, 1885. Papers in Palaeontology, 2: 1–23. doi: 10.1002/spp2.1022 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spp2.1022/abstract Below is a

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

from Stocker (2012):

References

External links

www.paleodatabase.org
{{Taxonbar, from=Q903342 Phytosaurs Prehistoric marine reptiles Prehistoric reptile genera Norian genera Late Triassic reptiles of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1896 Taxa named by Eberhard Fraas