''Dagasuchus'' is an extinct

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 ...

pseudosuchia Pseudosuchia, from Ancient Greek ψεύδος (''pseúdos)'', meaning "false", and σούχος (''soúkhos''), meaning "crocodile" is one of two major divisions of Archosauria, including living crocodilians and all archosaurs more closely relat ...

archosaur Archosauria () or archosaurs () is a clade of diapsid sauropsid tetrapods, with birds and crocodilians being the only extant taxon, extant representatives. Although broadly classified as reptiles, which traditionally exclude birds, the cladistics ...

from the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch a ...

(

Carnian The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Triassic series (stratigraphy), Series (or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Triassic Epoch (reference date), Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227.3 ...

) of

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

, Brazil, represented by 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 ...

''Dagasuchus santacruzensis''. ''D. santacruzensis'' was named in 2015 on the basis of specimen UFRGS-PV-1244-T and UFRGS-PV-1245-T, a partial hip (one ilium and a pair of

ischia Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Although inhabited since the Bronze Age, as a Ancient G ...

) found in an exposure of the

Santa Maria Formation The Santa Maria Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is primarily Carnian in age (Late Triassic), and is notable for its fossils of cynodonts, " rauisuchian" pseudosuchians, and early dinosaurs and othe ...

in the

Paraná Basin The Paraná Basin (, ) is a large cratonic sedimentary basin situated in the central-eastern part of South America. About 75% of its areal distribution occurs in Brazil, from Mato Grosso to Rio Grande do Sul states. The remainder area is distribu ...

, near the city of

Santa Cruz do Sul Santa Cruz do Sul () is a Municipalities of Brazil, Brazilian municipality located in the central region of the States of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul, approximately from Porto Alegre. According to estimates by the Brazilian Institute of ...

. ''Dagasuchus'' is an early member of a large evolutionary group called

Loricata Loricata is a clade of archosaur reptiles that includes crocodilians and some of their Triassic relatives, such as ''Postosuchus'' and ''Prestosuchus''. More specifically, Loricata includes Crocodylomorpha (the persistent archosaur subset which ...

, which originated in the Triassic and includes modern

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 ...

ns and their ancestors. Features of its hip closely resemble those of other early loricatans such as ''

Stagonosuchus ''Stagonosuchus'' is an extinct genus of paracrocodylomorph, possibly a loricatan synonymous with ''Prestosuchus'' or a poposauroid. Fossils have been found from the Late Triassic Manda Formation in Tanzania that are Anisian in age. Description ...

'' and ''

Saurosuchus ''Saurosuchus'' (meaning "lizard crocodile") is an extinct genus of large loricatan pseudosuchian archosaurs that lived in South America during the Late Triassic period. It was a heavy, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal carnivore, likely being the a ...

''. ''Dagasuchus'' is notable for being the first loricatan found in the ''

Santacruzodon ''Santacruzodon'' is an extinct genus of cynodonts which existed in Brazil during the Triassic period. The type species is ''Santacruzodon hopsoni''. Species ''Santacruzodon hopsoni'' is a species that was collected in 1995 in Santa Cruz do Sul, ...

'' assemblage zone of the Santa Maria Formation; previously loricatans were only known from the older ''

Dinodontosaurus ''Dinodontosaurus'' (meaning "terrible-toothed lizard") is a genus of dicynodont therapsid. It was medium to large dicynodont of the Triassic (with skull up to long) and had a beak corneum. It lived in the Middle Triassic but disappeared in the ...

'' assemblage zone and the younger ''

Hyperodapedon ''Hyperodapedon'' (from , 'above' and , 'pavement') is an extinct genus of rhynchosaur reptiles which lived during Triassic, Late Triassic period. Like other rhynchosaurs, it was an heavily built Archosauromorpha, archosauromorph, distantly rel ...

'' assemblage zone within the Santa Maria Formation, meaning that ''Dagasuchus'' fills in a gap in the fossil record of the group.

References

Loricata Carnian genera Triassic pseudosuchians Late Triassic reptiles of South America Triassic Brazil Fossils of Brazil Santa Maria Formation Fossil taxa described in 2015 Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera {{paleo-archosaur-stub