Chenanisuchus

Chenanisuchus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) - Paleocene
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Life restoration of Chenanisuchus lateroculi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Crocodylomorpha
Family:	†Dyrosauridae
Genus:	†Chenanisuchus Jouve et al., 2005
Type species
†Chenanisuchus lateroculi Jouve et al. 2005

Chenanisuchus ("Chenane crocodile") is a genus of dyrosaurid crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous of Mali and the Late Palaeocene of Sidi Chenane in Morocco. It was described in 2005, after expeditions uncovered it in 2000.

The type species is C. lateroculi ("lateralis", lateral; "oculi", eyes), in reference to the laterally facing eyes.

Currently, Chenanisuchus is the most basal known dyrosaurid.

Material

Two specimens of C. lateroculi – OCP DEK-GE 262 (holotype, nearly complete skull with mandibular fragments) and OCP DEK-GE 61 (nearly complete skull) – come from the Sidi Chenane area in Morocco, which is Late Palaeocene (Thanetian) in age. Fossils of Chenanisuchus were also found in Maastrichtian age strata in Mali, what shows that Chenanisuchus survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

Systematics

Chenanisuchus lateroculi is referred to Dyrosauridae by Jouve et al. (2005), based on three morphological characters:

• Presence of occipital tuberosities
• Presence of an anterolateral postorbital process
• Large participation of the quadratojugal and surangular to the jaw joint

Palaeobiology

Chenanisuchus lateroculi has an estimated adult length between 4 and 4.5 meters, based on the 60 centimeter long skull. It has the shortest snout relative to the dorsal skull length among all dyrosaurids.

References

• Jouve, S., Bouya, B. & Amaghzaz, M., (2005). A short-snouted dyrosaurid (Crocodyliformes, Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Palaeocene of Marocco. Palaeontology 48 (2): 359-369. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2005.00442.x