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Concept
Gryposuchus
Summary
Gryposuchus is an extinct genus of gavialid crocodilian. Fossils have been found from Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and the Peruvian Amazon. The genus existed during the Miocene epoch (Colhuehuapian to Huayquerian). One recently described species, G. croizati, grew to an estimated length of . Gryposuchus is the type genus of the subfamily Gryposuchinae, although a 2018 study indicates that Gryposuchinae and Gryposuchus might be paraphyletic and rather an evolutionary grade towards the gharial.
The type species of Gryposuchus is G. jessei, named based on a well-preserved rostrum collected along the Pauini River of Brazil in 1912. The specimen was probably destroyed during World War II by the 1943 bombing of Hamburg. Another specimen named UFAC 1272, consisting of a premaxilla and maxilla, was discovered in the nearby Sena Madureia locality of the late Miocene Solimões Formation, in and referred to the species in 1997. G. jessei is also referred to from the Urumaco Formation of northwestern Venezuela. A second species, G. neogaeus, was referred to the genus in 1982; specimens from this species were first described from the late Miocene Ituzaingó Formation of Argentina in 1885, although it was referred to Rhamphostomopsis at the time.
Another species, G. colombianus, has been recovered from deposits from the Middle Miocene Honda Group of Colombia, and the late Miocene Urumaco Formation in Venezuela. This species, named in 1965, was originally referred to Gavialis. Fragmentary material of Gryposuchus from the Fitzcarrald Arch in the Peruvian Amazon dating back to the late middle Miocene bear a close resemblance to G. colombianus, but differ in rostrum proportions. G. neogaeus and G. colombianus have been proposed as synonyms of G. jessei, but this is unlikely due to the number of anatomical differences between them.
A species described in 2008, G. croizati, also found from the upper Miocene Urumaco Formation in Venezuela, can be distinguished from other species of Gryposuchus on the basis of a reduced number of maxillary teeth, a slender parietal interfenestral bar, and widely separated and reduced palatine fenestrae, and other characters.
Official source
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