''Turanosuchus'' 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 paralligatorid

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 ...

. It is based on

PIN A pin is a device, typically pointed, used for fastening objects or fabrics together. Pins can have the following sorts of body: *a shaft of a rigid inflexible material meant to be inserted in a slot, groove, or hole (as with pivots, hinges, an ...

2229/507, a partial lower jaw consisting of the area where the two halves of the lower jaw meet (mandibular symphysis). This specimen was found in rocks of the lower

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya ( million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 m ...

-age

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cret ...

Bostobe Svita of Shakh-Shakh, southern

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. ''Turanosuchus'' was described in 1988 by Mikhail Efimov. 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 ...

is ''T. aralensis''. Halliday ''et al.'' (2015) revised the material attributed to ''T. aralensis'' and concluded that it represents non-diagnostic

neosuchia Neosuchia is a clade within Mesoeucrocodylia that includes all modern extant crocodilians and their closest fossil relatives. It is defined as the most inclusive clade containing all Crocodylomorpha, crocodylomorphs more closely related to ''Croc ...

n material, and as such the genus was 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 ...

''. Skutschas, Rezvyi & Efimov (2015) considered ''Turanosuchus aralensis'' to be 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 '' Kansajsuchus extensus''. Kuzmin ''et al.'' (2019) considered genus ''Turanosuchus'' to be a junior synonym of the genus ''Kansajsuchus''; however, the authors were uncertain whether ''T. aralensis'' is a junior synonym of ''K. extensus'' or a distinct paralligatorid taxon (though closely related to ''K. extensus''). The authors noted that the fossil material attributed to ''T. aralensis'' demonstrates a single

autapomorphy In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a Synapomorphy, derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or Outgroup (cladistics), outgroup taxa, not ...

of ''K. extensus'' among paralligatorids (restriction of the frontal participation in the orbital margin), but this feature varies among specimens of ''T. aralensis''. According to the authors, this variability could either reflect ontogenetic/individual variation in this feature or indicate the presence of a taxon distinct from ''K. extensus''.

References

Paralligatoridae Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Asia Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera {{paleo-archosaur-stub