Francosuchus Angustifrons

''Francosuchus'' is a dubious genus of probably basal phytosaur known from the Late Triassic (late Carnian stage) of Bavaria, southern Germany. It was named by Oskar Kuhn in 1933 and the type species is ''Francosuchus broilii''. In the same article Kuhn also named a second species ''Francosuchus latus''. Both species were known solely from their holotypes, two partial skulls that were housed at the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontogy and Geology. Both specimens were collected at Ebrach Quarry, bed number 13 from the late Carnian-aged Blasensandstein Member of the Hassberge Formation.Kuhn, O. (1933). Labyrinthodonten und Parasuchier aus dem mittleren Keuper von Ebrach in Oberfranken. ''Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie, und Paläontologie, Beilage-Band, Abteilung B'', 69:94-144. As the holotypes were destroyed during World War II and poorly documented, ''Francosuchus'' and its species are usually considered to be nomen dubium, nomina dubia.

Kuhn (1936) described and named a third species of this genus, ''Francosuchus angustifrons'', on a basis of another skull from the same quarry, bed number 9.Kuhn, O. (1936). Weitere Parasuchier und Labyrinthodonten aus dem Blasensandstein des mittleren Keuper von Ebrach. ''Palaeontographica, Abteilung A'', 83:61-98. This species was recently reassigned to ''Paleorhinus'', because it shares unique synapomorphies with ''P. bransoni'' (the type species of ''Paleorhinus''), and a species-level phylogenetic analysis of phytosaurs found the species to be sister taxon, sister taxa. Friedrich von Huene (1939) described and named a fourth species, ''Francosuchus trauthi''. It was synonymized with ''Paleorhinus'', but a re-description of the species by Butler (2013) found no evidence to support the synonymy, or even a phytosaurian identification. Although it is based solely on a Rostrum (anatomy), rostrum fragment, ''"F." trauthi'' was found to possess a unique combination of characters that distinguish it from all other Triassic tetrapods. Thus it was reassigned to a new genus, ''Dolerosaurus'', referable to Tetrapoda ''incertae sedis''.

References

Phytosauria
Prehistoric reptile genera
Late Triassic reptiles of Europe
Triassic Germany
Fossils of Germany
Taxa named by Oskar Kuhn
Fossil taxa described in 1933

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