''Borealosuchus'' (meaning "

boreal Boreal may refer to: Climatology and geography *Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of northern Europe, during the Holocene epoch *Boreal climate, a climate characterized by long winters and short, cool to mild ...

crocodile") 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 n ...

of crocodyliforms that lived from the

Late 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'', ...

to the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

in North America. It was named by Chris Brochu in 1997 for several

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), 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 ...

that had been assigned to ''

Leidyosuchus ''Leidyosuchus'' (meaning " Leidy's crocodile") is an extinct genus of alligatoroid from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta. It was named in 1907 by Lawrence Lambe, and the type species is ''L. canadensis''. It is known from a number of specimens f ...

''. The species assigned to it are: ''B. sternbergii'', 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( ...

, from the

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 interv ...

(Late Cretaceous) of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

Montana Montana () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West List of regions of the United States#Census Bureau-designated regions and divisions, division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, S ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

, and

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the sou ...

; ''B. acutidentatus'', from the

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''pal ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...

; ''B. formidabilis'', from the Paleocene of North Dakota; ''B. griffithi'', from the Paleocene of

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

; and ''B. wilsoni'', from the Eocene of Wyoming. ''B. formidabilis'' is particularly well-known, represented by the remains of many individuals from the Wannagan Creek site in North Dakota. ''Borealosuchus'' was a mid-sized crocodyliform; ''B. acutidentatus'' reached up to in length with a

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, t ...

Taxonomy

Six species of ''Borealosuchus'' are currently recognized. In order of their naming, they are ''B. sternbergii'', ''B. acutidentatus'', ''B. wilsoni'', ''B. formidabilis'', ''B. griffithi'', and ''B. threeensis''.
Fossilworks Four of these species (''B. sternbergi'', ''B. acutidentatus'', ''B. wilsoni'', and ''B. formidabilis'') were originally named as species of ''Leidyosuchus''. A sixth species of ''Borealosuchus'', ''B. threeensis'', was named in 2012. Fossils of this species were found in the Inversand Company Marl Pit of

Gloucester County, New Jersey Gloucester County () is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 302,294. Gloucester County is located approximately southeast ...

. The specific name is a reference to Exit 3 of the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although maintained by NJTA, is not co ...

, which is the closest highway exit to the type locality. The authors of the paper describing ''B. threeensis'' noted that the name is "in reference to a question every New Jersey resident encounters when traveling: 'Oh, you’re from New Jersey? Which exit?'".

Classification

Although some earlier

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 ...

studies proposed ''Borealosuchus'' to be a member of

Crocodylia 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 ...

, recent studies are now recovering ''Borealosuchus'' as a basal

eusuchia Eusuchia is a clade of crocodylomorphs that first appeared in the Early Cretaceous with '' Hylaeochampsa''. Along with Dyrosauridae and Sebecosuchia, they were the only crocodyliformes who survived the K-T extinction. Since the other two clades ...

n not belonging to Crocodylia, as shown in the

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 ...

below:

References

External links

''Borealosuchus''
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 Paleo ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2489118, from2=Q12899046, from3=Q12899047, from4=Q12899045, from5=Q21256030, from6=Q12899041 Neosuchians Paleocene crocodylomorphs Eocene crocodylomorphs Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of North America Late Cretaceous reptiles of North America Hell Creek fauna Paleocene reptiles of North America Eocene reptiles of North America Fossil taxa described in 1997 Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera