''Uberabasuchus'' ("
Uberaba
Uberaba () is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Highlands at an elevation of 823 metres (2,700 ft) above sea level on the Uberaba River, and is situated 418 kilometres (260 mi) from the state c ...
crocodile")
[''Uberabasuchus'']
at Fossilworks
Fossilworks was a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world.
History
Fossilworks was cr ...
.org 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
crocodylomorph
Crocodylomorpha is a group of pseudosuchian archosaurs that includes the crocodilians and their extinct relatives. They were the only members of Pseudosuchia to survive the end-Triassic extinction. Extinct crocodylomorphs were considerably mor ...
from the
Late 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 ''cre ...
Serra da Galga Formation
The Serra da Galga Formation is a geological formation in Minas Gerais state of southeastern Brazil. Its strata date back to the Maastrichtian, and are part of the Bauru Group. It was originally considered a member of the Marília Formation.
Di ...
of
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
. It appears to have a high skull like that of the
sebecosuchians, but differs from them in having teeth with circular cross-section. Thus, rather than slicing flesh and blood vessels, it is likely to have inflicted powerful crushing bites (same is likely for ''
Lomasuchus'' and ''
Peirosaurus''). The post-crania and the geology suggesting an arid climate indicate that ''Uberabasuchus'' was likely a terrestrial predator.
References
Further reading
''Uberabasuchus terrificus'' sp. nov., a New Crocodylomorpha from the Bauru Basin (Upper Cretaceous), Brazil- original description of genus (pdf)
Peirosauridae
Terrestrial crocodylomorphs
Campanian life
Maastrichtian life
Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of South America
Cretaceous Brazil
Fossils of Brazil
Marília Formation
Fossil taxa described in 2004
Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera
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