Notochampsa

Notochampsa
Notochampsa
Temporal range: Early Jurassic
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Subclass: Diapsida
Infraclass: Archosauromorpha
Superorder: Crocodylomorpha
Suborder: Protosuchia
Family: ?Protosuchidae
Genus: Notochampsa
Broom, 1904
Species
  • N. istedana Broom, 1904 (type)

Notochampsa is an extinct genus of protosuchian crocodylomorph.[1] Fossils have been found from the upper Elliot Formation and the lower Clarens Formation of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa, dating back to the Early Jurassic.[2][3][4] It lends its name to the family Notochampsidae, a taxon that has recently fallen from use as it is likely synonymous with Protosuchidae.[5] This family was once used to include other genera of protosuchians such as Dyoplax, Pedeticosaurus, Platyognathus, and Protosuchus,[6] and later Microchampsa and Orthosuchus.[7] Notochampsa had also once been assigned to the suborder Sphenosuchia.[8]

The genus was named in in a paper published in 1904 by Robert Broom.[9] The type species was named N. istedana, and a second species, named N. longipes, was also described. Later in 1924, N. longipes was given its own genus, Erythrochampsa.[10] The name Nothochampsa is a lapsus calami of Notochampsa.

References

  1. ^ Walker, A. D. (1990). "A revision of Sphenosuchus acutus Haughton, a crocodylomorph reptile from the Elliot Formation (Late Triassic or Early Jurassic) of South Africa". Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences 330 (1256): 1–120. doi:10.1098/rstb.1990.0185. 
  2. ^ Nash, D. S. (1975). "The morphology and relationships of a crocodilian, Orthosuchus stormbergi, from the Upper Triassic of Lesotho". Annals of the South African Museum 67 (1975)(7): 227–329. 
  3. ^ Durand, J. F. (2005). "Major African contributions to Palaeozoic and Mesozoic vertebrate palaeontology". Journal of African Earth Sciences. Phanerozoic Evolution of Africa 43 (1-3): 53–82. doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2005.07.014. 
  4. ^ Kitching, J. W.; and Raath, M. A. (1984). "Fossils from the Elliot and Clarens formations (Karoo sequence) of the northeastern Cape, Orange Free State and Lesotho, and a suggested biozonation based on tetrapods". Paleontologica Africana 25: 111–125. 
  5. ^ Taxon Search - Notochampsidae
  6. ^ Romer, A. S. (1956). Osteology of the Reptiles. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-89464-985-X. 
  7. ^ Steel, R. (1973). "Crocodylia". In Kuhn, O. (ed.). Handbuch der Palaoherpetologie (16 ed.). Stuttgart: G. Fischer Verlag. pp. 1–116. 
  8. ^ Huene, F. von (1925). "Die Bedeutung der Sphenosuchus-Gruppe fur den Ursprung der Krokodile". Z. Indukt. Abstamm.-u. Vererblehre 38: 307–322. doi:10.1007/BF02118235. 
  9. ^ Broom, R. (1904). "On a new crocodilian genus (Notochampsa) from the upper Stormberg beds of South Africa". Geological Magazine, new series, decade 5 1: 582–584. 
  10. ^ Haughton, S. H. (1924). "The fauna and stratigraphy of the Stormberg Series". Annals of the South African Museum 12: 323–497. 

External links

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