''Arambourgia'' 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 ...

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

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 ...

alligatorine Alligatorinae is a subfamily within the family Alligatoridae that contains the alligators and their closest extinct relatives, and is the sister taxon to Caimaninae (the caimans). Many genera in Alligatorinae are described, but only the genus ''A ...

crocodylia Crocodilia () is an Order (biology), order of semiaquatic, predatory reptiles that are known as crocodilians. They first appeared during the Late Cretaceous and are the closest living relatives of birds. Crocodilians are a type of crocodylomorp ...

n from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. It was named in 1905 as ''Allognathosuchus gaudryi''. It was made a separate genus ''Arambourgia'' in 1940. This was synonymized with '' Allognathosuchus haupti'' in 1990 (now known as '' Hassiacosuchus haupti''), but later reassigned as its own genus once again in 2004. ''Arambourgia'' was likely to have been part of an early dispersal event of alligatorines from

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

to Europe during the

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

epoch. ''Arambourgia'' had non-serrated teeth and a deep orienirostral snout, unlike the flatter snouts of most other alligatorids. Recent studies have consistently resolved ''Arambourgia'' as a member of

Alligatorinae Alligatorinae is a subfamily within the family Alligatoridae that contains the alligators and their closest extinct relatives, and is the sister taxon to Caimaninae (the caimans). Many genera in Alligatorinae are described, but only the genus ' ...

, although its relative placement is disputed, as shown by 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 ...

s below. Cladogram from 2018 Bona ''et al.'' study: Cladogram from 2019 Massonne ''et al.'' study: Cladogram from 2020 Cossette & Brochu study:

Palaeoecology

Based on its unusual anatomy and it having been found in karstic settings, ''A. gaudryi'' occupied an ecological niche analogous to present-day juvenile and dwarf crocodylians.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3621257 Alligatorinae Fossil taxa described in 1940 Eocene crocodylomorphs Eocene reptiles of Europe Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera