Doratodon

''Doratodon'' is an extinct genus of Late Cretaceous ziphodont crocodylomorph that was once believed to be a dinosaur,Company, J., Suberbiola, X.P., Ruiz-Omeñaca, J.I. & Buscalioni, A.D. (2005). A new species of ''Doratodon'' (Crocodyliformes: Ziphosuchia) from the Late Cretaceous of Spain. ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 25(2): 343–353 that could be a sebecosuchian mesoeucrocodylian. Two species of ''Doratodon'' are known to science: ''D. carcharidens'' from Austria ( Grünbach Formation) and Hungary ( Csehbánya Formation), the type species; and ''D. ibericus'' from Spain ( Sierra Perenchiza Formation).

The holotype of ''D. carcharidens'' consists of a denture and a mandible.Zoltan Csiki-Sava, Eric Buffetaut, Attila Ősi, Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola, Stephen L. Brusatte (2015)
Island life in the Cretaceous - faunal composition, biogeography, evolution, and extinction of land-living vertebrates on the Late Cretaceous European archipelago
''Zookeys" 469: 1-161 doi: 10.3897/zookeys.469.8439 Other specimens include a maxilla fragment, a parietal and teeth. The holotype, and only known specimen of ''D. ibericus'', consists of an incomplete left mandible with dentation.

History

In 1859, geologist Eduard Suess at the ''Gute Hoffnung'' coal mine at Muthmannsdorf near Wiener Neustadt in Austria, discovered the holotype, PIUW 2349/57. With the help of mine intendant Pawlowitsch, they attempted to find the source of the fossil material. The search proved fruitless at first but ultimately a thin marl layer was discovered, intersected by an obliquely sloping mine shaft, which contained an abundant number of various archosaur fossils. These were subsequently excavated by Suess and Ferdinand Stoliczka. The marl was a fresh water deposit, now considered part of the Grünbach Formation.

Emanuel Bunzel named the type specimen as '' Crocodilus carcharidens'' in 1871. He believed it to belong to a dinosaur. It was renamed as the new species ''Doratodon carcharidens'' in 1881 by Harry Govier Seeley. Seeley, H. G., (1881), "The reptile fauna of the Gosau Formation preserved in the Geological Museum of the University of Vienna", ''Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London'' 37(148): 620-707
The second species, ''D. ibericus'', was named by Company ''et al.'' in 2005. ''Doratodon'' was reassessed by Zoltan ''et al.'' (2015) and Rabi & Sebok (2015) as a possible sebecosuchian mesoeucrocodylian.

It is possible that the contemporaneous ankylosaurian dinosaur '' Rhadinosaurus alcimus'' ( Seeley, 1881), known only from its holotype (PIUW 2349/34), was the same animal as ''Doratodon carcharidens''.

Description

''Doratodon'' is represented by its diagnostic triangular, labiolingually flattened, and mesially and distally finely serrated teeth as well as some fragmentary dentaries.

Classification

''Doratodon'' was initially identified as a theropod dinosaur, but it was later placed within the Ziphosuchia. Zoltan ''et al.'' (2015) and Rabi & Sebok (2015) placed ''Doratodon'' within Sebecosuchia, a clade within Ziphosuchia.

Palaeobiology

Palaeoecology

''Doratodon'' is known from at least three formations in Europe: the Grünbach Formation, the Csehbánya Formation and the Sierra Perenchiza Formation.

In the Grünbach Formation, ''Doratodon'' would have coexisted with: three species of indeterminate pterosaurs (one is '' Ornithocheirus buenzeli''), an unnamed eusuchian, an unnamed choristodere, two indeterminate turtle species, an indeterminate tetanuran theropod, the rhabdodontid '' Mochlodon'' and the nodosaurids '' Rhadinosaurus'' and '' Struthiosaurus''.

In the Csehbánya Formation, ''Doratodon'' would have coexisted with: multiple species of squamates, such as the mosasaur '' Pannoniasaurus'' and the scincomorph '' Chromatogenys'', three species of crocodyliformes (''cf.'' '' Allodaposuchus'', '' Iharkutosuchus'' and ''cf.'' '' Theriosuchus''), three species of turtles (''Foxemys'', ''Kallokibotion'' and Dortokidae indet.), the pterosaurs '' Bakonydraco'', Azhdarchidae indet. and Pterodactyloidea indet., and the dinosaurs ''Ajkaceratops'', '' Bauxitornis'', '' Hungarosaurus'', '' Mochlodon'', ''Pneumatoraptor'', '' Struthiosaurus'', Paraves indet., Abelisauridae indet., Tetanurae indet. and an indeterminate sauropod.

In the Sierra Perenchiza Formation, ''Doratodon'' would have coexisted with: the crocodyliformes '' Acynodon'' and '' Musturzabalsuchus'', indeterminate turtles, an indeterminate lissamphibian, two indeterminate frog species (one species likely part of the Discoglossidae), indeterminate pterosaurs an indeterminate albanerpetontid and several indeterminate dinosaurs.

Paleobiogeography

'' Bergisuchus'' and '' Iberosuchus'' do not appear to be closely related to the Cretaceous sebecosuchian ''Doratodon'', which was found across Europe during the Late Cretaceous. This appears to indicate that ''Bergisuchus'' and other European sebecosuchians did not descend from Cretaceous European sebecosuchians like ''Doratodon'', but was instead part of a separate invasion of sebecosuchians into Europe during the Palaeogene from South America.

References

Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Europe
Prehistoric life of Europe
Fossil taxa described in 1881
Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera
Fossils of Austria

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