''Agaresuchus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of allodaposuchid

eusuchia Eusuchia is a clade of neosuchian Crocodylomorpha, crocodylomorphs that first appeared in the Early Cretaceous, which includes modern Crocodilia, crocodilians. Along with Dyrosauridae and Sebecosuchia, they were the only crocodyliformes who survi ...

crocodylomorph Crocodylomorpha is a group of pseudosuchian archosaurs that includes the crocodilians and their extinct relatives. They were the only members of Pseudosuchia to survive the end-Triassic extinction. Extinct crocodylomorphs were considerably mor ...

from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent 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 ''cre ...

(

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...

) of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It includes two species, the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

''A. fontisensis'', and ''A. subjuniperus'', which was originally named as a species of the related genus ''

Allodaposuchus ''Allodaposuchus'' is an extinct genus of crocodyliforms that lived in what is now southern Europe during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages, and possibly the Santonian stage, of the Late Cretaceous. Although generally classified as a non-cro ...

''. However, it has been proposed that both species may instead belong to the genus ''Allodaposuchus''.

Discovery and naming

The genus ''Agaresuchus'' was named in 2016 upon the discovery of ''

Agaresuchus fontisensis ''Agaresuchus'' is an extinct genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodylomorph from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) of Spain. It includes two species, the type species ''A. fontisensis'', and ''A. subjuniperus'', which was original ...

''. ''Allodaposuchus subjuniperus'', discovered in 2013 and originally classified as a new and second species of ''

'', was then reassigned to ''Agaresuchus''. It is based on the holotype skull, specimen MPZ 2012/288. ''A. subjuniperus'' was named in 2013 on the basis of a skull from the late

-aged Conquès Formation, part of the

Tremp Group The Tremp Formation (, ), alternatively described as Tremp Group (), is a geological formation in the comarca Pallars Jussà, Lleida, Spain. The formation is restricted to the Tremp or Tremp-Graus Basin (), a piggyback foreland basin in the ...

, in the

province of Huesca Huesca (; ), officially Huesca/Uesca, is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca. Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French departments of Haute-Garonne, Pyrénées- ...

. The skull was found underneath a

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

tree whose roots had grown between the bones, hence the specific name ''subjuniperus'' or "under juniper" in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. In 2016, the new genus and species ''Agaresuchus fontisensis'' was discovered and described. The genus name refers to the demon Agares, depicted by

Johann Weyer Johannes Wier ( or '; 1515 – 24 February 1588) was a Dutch physician who was among the first to publish a thorough treatise against the trials and persecution of people accused of witchcraft. His most influential work is ('On th ...

as an old man riding a crocodile. The specific name was named from the

Lo Hueco Lo may refer to any of the following: Arts and entertainment * Comic LO, a Japanese ''lolicon''-focused erotic manga magazine * ''Lo!'', the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort * L.O., a fictional character in the Playhou ...

fossil site in Fuentes,

Cuenca Cuenca may refer to: People * Cuenca (surname) Places Ecuador * Cuenca Canton, in the Azuay Province ** Cuenca, Ecuador, capital of Cuenca Canton and Azuay Province ** Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cuenca Peru * Cuenca District, Huarochirí ...

, Spain; ''fontes'' is the Latin name of Fuentes.

Description

The two species differ in traits such as the shape of the snout (elongated in the former, short in the latter); the shape of the

premaxilla The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth. In humans, they are fused with the maxilla. The "premaxilla" of therian mammals h ...

(longer than wide compared to wider than long); the number of maxillary tooth sockets (15 compared to 14); the shape of the eye sockets (large and round compared to short and crescent-shaped); the width between the eyes (narrow compared to characteristically broad); and characteristics of the

palate The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sep ...

and

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. Eac ...

Classifiation

''Agaresuchus'' was considered to be sufficiently distinct from the eastern European ''

Allodaposuchus precedens ''Allodaposuchus'' is an extinct genus of crocodyliforms that lived in what is now southern Europe during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages, and possibly the Santonian stage, of the Late Cretaceous. Although generally classified as a non-cro ...

'' to warrant a new genus. Alternatively, a 2021

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analysis considering additional

postcranial The postcranium ("behind the cranium"; plural: postcrania) or postcranial skeleton in zoology and vertebrate paleontology is the skeleton apart from the skull. The postcranium encompasses the axial skeleton, which includes the entirety of the verte ...

material recovered ''

'' as

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

with respect to ''Agaresuchus'' and '' Lohuecosuchus'', and suggested that both ''A. fontisensis'' and ''A. subjuniperus'' belong within the genus ''Allodaposuchus'' proper, which would render ''Agaresuchus'' as a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of ''Allodaposuchus''. The

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

from Blanco's 2021 study is shown below:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28736399, from2=Q55591686, from3=Q55591754 Allodaposuchidae Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Europe Terrestrial crocodylomorphs Campanian life Maastrichtian life Cretaceous Spain Fossils of Spain Tremp Formation Fossil taxa described in 2016