''Aggiosaurus'' 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 geosaurine

metriorhynchid Metriorhynchidae is an extinct family of specialized, aquatic metriorhynchoid crocodyliforms from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous period (Bajocian to early Aptian) of Europe, North America and South America. The name Metriorhynchidae ...

crocodyliform Crocodyliformes is a clade of Crurotarsi, crurotarsan archosaurs, the group often traditionally referred to as "crocodilians". They are the first members of Crocodylomorpha to possess many of the features that define later relatives. They are the ...

known from the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...

(late Oxfordian stage) of

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It contains a single species, ''Aggiosaurus nicaeensis'', which was named by H. Ambayrac in

1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...

.H. Ambayrac. (1913). Découverte d'une mâchoire de reptile jurassique iscovery of a jaw from a Jurassic reptile ''Bulletin Mensuel des Naturalistes des Alpes-Maritimes'' 15:65-68

History of discovery

''Aggiosaurus'' is known only from its

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, an unnumbered, poorly preserved

upper jaw In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxillar ...

collected by H. Ambayrac in 1912, Maury, E. (1915). New observations on the Jurassic reptile localities on the road from Cap d'Ail to La Turbie. ''Riviera Scientifique. Bulletin de l'Association des Naturalistes de Nice et des Alpes-Maritimes'' 2(1):4-6 preserved in

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

which is now housed in the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Nice. It was collected from the late Oxfordian-aged locality of Cap d’Aggio-La Turbie, in

. It was initially described as a

megalosaurid Megalosauridae is a monophyletic family of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs within the group Megalosauroidea. Appearing in the Middle Jurassic, megalosaurids were among the first major radiation of large theropod dinosaurs. They were a relatively ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

by Ambayrac (1913). Later, Buffetaut (1982) demonstrated that it was in fact a

, closely related to, if not a member of '' Dakosaurus''.Buffetaut E. (1982). ''Aggiosaurus nicaeensis'' Ambayrac, 1913, from the Upper Jurassic of south-eastern France: A marine crocodilian, not a dinosaur. ''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte'' (8): 469-475. As the type specimen is poorly preserved it is sometimes considered to be a

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium,'' it may be impossible to determine whether a ...

. Young & Andrade (2009) suggested that ''Aggiosaurus'' is 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 '' Dakosaurus'', and that ''A. nicaeensis'' is referrable to ''Dakosaurus'' as a distinct species provisionally. They based this referral on its unusually large dentition (apicobasal length in excess of ) that thought to be unique to species of ''Dakosaurus'' among all other

thalattosuchia Thalattosuchia is a clade of mostly marine crocodylomorphs from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous that had a cosmopolitan distribution. They are colloquially referred to as marine crocodiles or sea crocodiles, though they are not member ...

ns. ''Aggiosaurus'' actually has the largest dentition of any known metriorhynchid (up to in apicobasal length), although further

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 ...

analyses found that large robust teeth present also in other geosaurins, such as '' Torvoneustes''. Young ''et al.'' (2012) resurrected the genus name '' Plesiosuchus'' for ''D. manselii'' (which also present this trait) as their phylogenetic analysis found a

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 ...

''Dakosaurus'' and suggested more basal position for it within Geosaurini than previously thought. As the presence of unusually large dentition (apicobasal length in excess of ) was considered to be homoplastic among geosaurins, ''Aggiosaurus'' cannot be considered a junior synonym of either ''Dakosaurus'' or ''Plesiosuchus''.

Etymology

''Aggiosaurus'' was first described and named by H. Ambayrac in

, and the type species is ''Aggiosaurus nicaeensis''. The generic name is derived from the name of its type locality, Cap d'Aggio-La Turbie, and from "''"'' (), meaning "lizard" in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honors

Nice, France Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million

, in which it was discovered.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2711540 Fossils of France Fossil taxa described in 1913 Late Jurassic crocodylomorphs Prehistoric marine crocodylomorphs Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera