Mandasuchus

Mandasuchus

"Mandasuchus" is an extinct genus of prestosuchid rauisuchian that is yet to be formally described. Thus, the name is considered a nomen nudum. Fossils have been found from the Manda Formation of Tanzania and date back to the Ladinian or Anisian stage of the Middle Triassic.[1][2] The name was first used in a 1957 doctoral dissertation by Alan J. Charig of the University of Cambridge along with "Teleocrater", another nomen nudum then considered to be a dinosaur.[3] Several well preserved specimens have been found, although there is little cranial material.

The family Prestosuchidae was constructed in 1967 by Alfred Romer to include "Mandasuchus" and three other formally named genera of rauisuchians.[4][5] Charig and two coauthors suggested in a 1965 study dealing with saurischians that "Mandasuchus" was a possible ancestor of the prosauropods, although no explanation was given for these claims, which are now considered to be highly unlikely.[6][7] In his 1993 study of the phylogeny of Crocodylotarsi, J. Michael Parrish suggested that "Mandasuchus" is a junior synonym of European prestosuchid Ticinosuchus ferox due to the extreme similarity of some homologous postcranial bones, while also mentioning that a final taxonomic determination of "Mandasuchus" should be postponed until Charig provided a published description of the material.[8]

References

  1. ^ Dawley, R. M.; Zawiskie, J. M.; and Cosgriff, J. W. (1979). "A rauisuchid thecodont from the Upper Triassic Popo Agie Formation of Wyoming". Journal of Paleontology 53 (6): 1428–1431. 
  2. ^ Sen, K. (2005). "A new rauisuchian archosaur from the Middle Triassic of India". Palaeontology 48 (1): 185–196. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2004.00438.x. 
  3. ^ Charig, A. J. (1957). New Triassic archosaurs from Tanganyika, including Mandasuchus and Teleocrater: Dissertation Abstracts. Cambridge University.
  4. ^ Romer, A. S. (1967). Vertebrate Paleontology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 468. 
  5. ^ Alcober, O. (2000). "Redescription of the skull of Saurosuchus galilei (Archosauria: Rauisuchidae)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 20 (2): 302–316. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0302:ROTSOS]2.0.CO;2. 
  6. ^ Charig, A. J.; Attridge, J.; and Crompton, A. W. (1965). "On the origin of the sauropods and the classification of the Saurischia". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London 176: 197–221. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1965.tb00944.x. 
  7. ^ Bonaparte, J. F. (1976). "Pisanosaurus mertii Casamiquela and the origin of the Ornithischia". Journal of Paleontology 50 (5): 808–820. 
  8. ^ Parrish, J. M. (1993). "Phylogeny of the Crocodylotarsi, with reference to archosaurian and crurotarsan monophyly". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 13 (3): 287–308. doi:10.1080/02724634.1993.10011511. 
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