Gracilisuchus

Taxobox
name = "Gracilisuchus"
fossil_range = Middle Triassic

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image_width = 250px
image_caption = life restoration of "Gracilisuchus"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
infraclassis = Archosauromorpha
unranked_ordo = Crurotarsi
genus = "Gracilisuchus"
species = "G. stipanicicorum"
binomial = "Gracilisuchus stipanicicorum"
binomial_authority = Romer, 1972

"Gracilisuchus" (meaning "gracile crocodile") is an extinct genus of tiny (30 cm long) crurotarsan (a group which includes the ancestors of crocodilians) from the Middle Triassic. It was a suchian close to the ancestry of crocodiles, and was at one time thought to be a dinosaur, but this hypothesis has since been rejected. Its fossils were first discovered in the 1970s.

References

Romer, A.S. (1972). "The Chañares (Argentina) Triassic reptile fauna. An early ornithosuchid pseudosuchian, "Gracilisuchus stipanicicorum, gen. et sp. nov"." "Breviora" 389:1-24.

External links

* [http://www.dinoruss.com/de_4/5c79826.htm "Gracilisuchus"] in the Dinosaur Encyclopedia
* [http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Fossilgroups/Crocodylomorpha/Fossilrecord.html Crocodylomorpha fossil record]