A NEW METRIORHYNCHID CROCODILIAN (MESOEUCROCODYLIA: THALATTOSUCHIA) FROM THE KIMMERIDGIAN (UPPER JURASSIC) OF WILTSHIRE,UK |
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| Authors: | LAURA E WILKINSON MARK T YOUNG MICHAEL J BENTON |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queen’s Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK;2. e‐mails: laurawilkinson.1985@gmail.com;3. mike.benton@bristol.ac.uk;4. Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK;5. e‐mail: mark.young@bristol.ac.uk |
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| Abstract: | Abstract: Recent revision of the marine metriorhynchid crocodilians indicates that a partial skull previously assigned to the species Metriorhynchus superciliosus and newly discovered postcranial elements from the Kimmeridge Clay of Westbury, Wiltshire belong to a new species of metriorhynchid. This material is herein described and referred to a new species of the genus Dakosaurus, characterised by four apomorphies: the size and shape of the enlarged supratemporal fossae; relatively large teeth, and half the number in relatives; the robust and unornamented cranium; and the angle that the prefrontal makes with the long axis of the skull. In a new phylogenetic analysis, Dakosaurus carpenteri sp. nov. is the basal member of a clade containing also D. maximus and D. andiniensis: it is not so short‐snouted and its teeth are not so few and large as in the other two species, but the new form illustrates the ecological transition among metriorhynchids from a piscivorous diet to high‐order carnivory. |
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| Keywords: | Metriorhynchidae Kimmeridgian Jurassic England Metriorhynchus Dakosaurus Thalattosuchia |
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