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Sacacosuchus
''Sacacosuchus'' is an extinct monospecific genus of marine gavialid that lived along the coast of the south-east Pacific from approximately 19 to 6.3 million years ago. Its fossils have been found in the Chilcatay and Pisco Formations of Peru, where it coexisted with the much larger ''Piscogavialis''. Based on its skull, ''Sacacosuchus'' was most likely a generalist feeder with an estimated total body length of . Its extinction is thought to have been caused by a combination of factors including falling sea levels and global cooling. History and naming ''Sacacosuchus'' is known from several adult to juvenile specimens mostly stemming from the Sacaco locality of the Pisco Formation. The holotype represents a nearly complete skull, while some of the referred specimens include partial skulls and dentary bones. Other material was found in the Ica-Pisco Valley and the older Chilcatay Formation. The generic name derives from the Sacaco area of the Pisco Basin and the Greek "such ...
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Piscogavialis
''Piscogavialis'' is an extinct monospecific genus of gryposuchine gavialid crocodylian. The only species yet known is ''P. jugaliperforatus''. Fossils of ''Piscogavialis'' have been found from the Mio-Pliocene Pisco Formation of the Sacaco Basin in southern Peru in 1998,''Piscogavialis''
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where it coexisted with the much smaller gavialid '' Sacacosuchus''. ''Piscogavialis'' is known only from a single specimen, but it represents some of the best preserved gavialid material known from

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Pisco Formation
The Pisco Formation is a geologic formation located in Peru, on the southern coastal desert of Ica and Arequipa. The approximately thick formation was deposited in the Pisco Basin, spanning an age from the Middle Miocene up to the Early Pleistocene, roughly from 15 to 2 Ma. The tuffaceous sandstones, diatomaceous siltstones, conglomerates and dolomites were deposited in a lagoonal to near-shore environment, in bays similar to other Pacific South American formations as the Bahía Inglesa and Coquimbo Formations of Chile. Several specialists consider the Pisco Formation one of the most important Lagerstätten,Brand et al., 2004Brand et al., 2011 based on the large amount of exceptionally preserved marine fossils, including sharks (most notably megalodon), penguins, whales, dolphins, birds, marine crocodiles and aquatic giant sloths. Famous fossils found in these layers include the giant raptorial sperm whale ''Livyatan'',Lambert et al., 2010 the aquatic sloth '' Thalassocnu ...
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2022 In Archosaur Paleontology
This article records new taxa of fossil archosaurs of every kind that are scheduled described during the year 2022, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleontology of archosaurs that are scheduled to occur in the year 2022. Pseudosuchians New pseudosuchian taxa General pseudosuchian research * A study on the mandible embryogenesis in extant caimans, and on its implications for the knowledge of the evolution of postdentary lower jaw of pseudosuchians, is published by Bona ''et al.'' (2022). * A study on the musculature of crocodylian and fossil suchian jaws, investigating the impact of the flattening of the skulls of suchians in their evolutionary history on their muscle anatomy, is published by Sellers ''et al.'' (2022). * Revision of '' Tsylmosuchus donensis'' and ''Scythosuchus basileus'' is published by Sennikov (2022), who interprets the latter taxon as a junior synonym of the former one, and interprets ''T. donensis'' as a likely member ...
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Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene. As Earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate slowly cooled towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by a single distinct global event but consist rather of regionally defined boundaries between the warmer Oligocene and the cooler Pliocene Epoch. During the Early Miocene, the Arabian Peninsula collided with Eurasia, severing the connection between the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, and allowing a faunal interchange to occur between Eurasia and Africa, including the dispersal of proboscideans into Eurasia. During the la ...
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Tomistoma
''Tomistoma'' is a genus of gavialid crocodilians. They are noted for their long narrow snouts used to catch fish, similar to the gharial. ''Tomistoma'' contains one extant (living) member, the false gharial (''Tomistoma schlegelii''), as well as potentially several extinct species: ''T. cairense'', ''T. lusitanicum'', ''T. taiwanicus'', ''T. coppensi'', and ''T. dowsoni''. However, these species may need to be reclassified to different genera as studies have shown them to be paraphyletic. Unlike the gharial, the false gharial's snout broadens considerably towards the base and so is more similar to those of true crocodiles than the gharial, whose osteology indicated a distinct lineage from all other living crocodilians.Piras, P., Colangelo, P., Adams, D. C., Buscalioni, A., Cubo, J., Kotsakis, T., & Raia, P. (2010). ''The Gavialis–Tomistoma debate: the contribution of skull ontogenetic allometry and growth trajectories to the study of crocodylian relationships''. Evolution ...
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Thoracosaurus
''Thoracosaurus'' is an extinct genus of eusuchian crocodylomorph which existed during the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene in North America and Europe. The taxon had traditionally been thought to be related to the modern false gharial, largely because the nasal bones contact the premaxillae. Phylogenetic work starting in the 1990s instead supported affinities within Gavialoidea exclusive of such forms, although a 2018 tip dating study simultaneously using morphological, molecular ( DNA sequencing), and stratigraphic (fossil age) data suggests that it might have been a non-crocodylian eusuchian. The genus contains the type species ''Thoracosaurus neocesariensis'' in North America, and what is either ''Thoracosaurus isorhynchus'' or ''Thoracosaurus macrorhynchus'' from Europe; a recent review argues that ''T. macrorhynchus'' is a junior synonym of ''T. isorhynchus,'' but it is unclear whether the type of ''T. isorhynchus'' allows differentiation of European and North American ' ...
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Nasal Bone
The nasal bones are two small oblong bones, varying in size and form in different individuals; they are placed side by side at the middle and upper part of the face and by their junction, form the bridge of the upper one third of the nose. Each has two surfaces and four borders. Structure The two nasal bones are joined at the midline internasal suture and make up the bridge of the nose. Surfaces The ''outer surface'' is concavo-convex from above downward, convex from side to side; it is covered by the procerus and nasalis muscles, and perforated about its center by a foramen, for the transmission of a small vein. The ''inner surface'' is concave from side to side, and is traversed from above downward, by a groove for the passage of a branch of the nasociliary nerve. Articulations The nasal articulates with four bones: two of the cranium, the frontal and ethmoid, and two of the face, the opposite nasal and the maxilla. Other animals In primitive bony fish and tetr ...
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Prefrontal Bones
The prefrontal bone is a bone separating the lacrimal and frontal bones in many tetrapod skulls. It first evolved in the sarcopterygian clade Rhipidistia, which includes lungfish and the Tetrapodomorpha. The prefrontal is found in most modern and extinct lungfish, amphibians and reptiles. The prefrontal is lost in early mammaliaforms and so is not present in modern mammals either. In dinosaurs The prefrontal bone is a very small bone near the top of the skull, which is lost in many groups of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs and is completely absent in their modern descendants, the birds. Conversely, a well developed prefrontal is considered to be a primitive feature in dinosaurs. The prefrontal makes contact with several other bones in the skull. The anterior part of the bone articulates with the nasal bone and the lacrimal bone. The posterior part of the bone articulates with the frontal bone and more rarely the palpebral bone The palpebral bone is a small dermal bone f ...
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Dental Alveoli
Dental alveoli (singular ''alveolus'') are sockets in the jaws in which the roots of teeth are held in the alveolar process with the periodontal ligament. The lay term for dental alveoli is tooth sockets. A joint that connects the roots of the teeth and the alveolus is called ''gomphosis'' (plural ''gomphoses''). Alveolar bone is the bone that surrounds the roots of the teeth forming bone sockets. In mammals, tooth sockets are found in the maxilla, the premaxilla, and the mandible. Etymology 1706, "a hollow," especially "the socket of a tooth," from Latin alveolus "a tray, trough, basin; bed of a small river; small hollow or cavity," diminutive of alvus "belly, stomach, paunch, bowels; hold of a ship," from PIE root *aulo- "hole, cavity" (source also of Greek aulos "flute, tube, pipe;" Serbo-Croatian, Polish, Russian ulica "street," originally "narrow opening;" Old Church Slavonic uliji, Lithuanian aulys "beehive" (hollow trunk), Armenian yli "pregnant"). The word was extended i ...
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Indian Gharial
The gharial (''Gavialis gangeticus''), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are long, and males . Adult males have a distinct boss at the end of the snout, which resembles an earthenware pot known as a ''ghara'', hence the name "gharial". The gharial is well adapted to catching fish because of its long, narrow snout and 110 sharp, interlocking teeth. The gharial probably evolved in the northern Indian subcontinent. Fossil gharial remains were excavated in Pliocene deposits in the Sivalik Hills and the Narmada River valley. It currently inhabits rivers in the plains of the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. It is the most thoroughly aquatic crocodilian, and leaves the water only for basking and building nests on moist sandbanks. Adults mate at the end of the cold season. Females congregate in spring to dig nests, in which they lay 20–95 eggs. They guard ...
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Frontal Bone
The frontal bone is a bone in the human skull. The bone consists of two portions.'' Gray's Anatomy'' (1918) These are the vertically oriented squamous part, and the horizontally oriented orbital part, making up the bony part of the forehead, part of the bony orbital cavity holding the eye, and part of the bony part of the nose respectively. The name comes from the Latin word ''frons'' (meaning " forehead"). Structure of the frontal bone The frontal bone is made up of two main parts. These are the squamous part, and the orbital part. The squamous part marks the vertical, flat, and also the biggest part, and the main region of the forehead. The orbital part is the horizontal and second biggest region of the frontal bone. It enters into the formation of the roofs of the orbital and nasal cavities. Sometimes a third part is included as the nasal part of the frontal bone, and sometimes this is included with the squamous part. The nasal part is between the brow ridges, and ends ...
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