Iberosuchus

Iberosuchus (meaning 'Iberian crocodile') is a genus of extinct sebecosuchian mesoeucrocodylian found in Western Europe from the Eocene. Remains from Portugal was described in 1975 by Antunes as a sebecosuchian crocodilian. This genus has one species: I. macrodon (meaning 'large toothed). Iberosuchus was a carnivore, unlike the crocodilians today, they are not aquatic and are instead terrestrial. First of its fossils were cranial remains found in Portugal, and later more fossils were found in France and Spain. They are only known from very fragmentary fossils, elements of the skull, dentary, teeth and osteoderm. Remains of a mesocrocodylian were found in Portugal, it was named Iberosuchus macrodon in 1975 by Antunes, and is assigned as the type species. It was reclassified as a baurusuchid by Robert Carroll in 1988. In 1996 Ortega and colleges extended their range to France, they analyzed the fragmentary fossils of Atacisaurus crassiproratus (originally assigned to the tomistomine genus Atacisaurus by Astre 1931) and now consider it as cf. Iberosuchus. Iberosuchus has ziphodont teeth that have a laterally compressed tooth crown that had a distally curved apex; anterior-posteriorly elongated dorsal osteoderms that have a keel running through the central median; rugose ornamentations with no pits and cupules; osteoderm lack anterolateral process; the skull is vermiculated; spoon-like premaxilla palatal shelf or mandibular symphysis; notch between premaxilla and maxilla or large 4th mandibular tooth; deep rostrum or mandible. It also had traits that it shared with other metasuchians, the dentary had lateral depressions and had a prolongation that extends dorsally behind the tooth row; the splenials are robust, had a big slot-like foramen intermandibularis oralis; had anteriorposteriorly elongated glanoid fossa on articular. Though only known by skull fragments and osteoderms, many artistic reconstructions use its close relatives such as Sebecus which has post cranial remains found as a reference. There are 3 fossils of the premaxilla excavated from Aumelas, one consisting a close to complete right element, a fragmentary right element, and one with both elements pressed up against one another; they all display a very vermiculated surface texture and contain a concave dent where the dentary tooth lay. Premaxilla foramen is also visible on right element fossil's palatal view and the nares are anterior pointing, the lateral surface has very distinct ornamentation composed of bony ridges that make up the nares lateral margin. The premaxilla contains five alveoli, they increase in diameter towards the distal end and the fourth one being the largest, the last is the same size as the third and does not line up with other alveoli. There are two deep pits lingually right next to the third and fourth alveoli. There are two maxilla fossils excavated from Robiac and Saint-Martin-de-Londres, both being a fragment of the maxilla. The Robiac specimen is from the right maxilla, a fragment of the posterior part, with two ziphodont tooth corwns that are broken still on it. The Saint-Martin-de-Londres specimen is also the right maxilla, but larger. Both specimen display a vermiculated surface texture; no palatal processes are visible, but ectopterygoid is visible. There are six alveoli on the maxilla, they are compressed and have an oblique shape, with the third one being the largest. There is a dent visible in collars of the alveoli when viewed medially, the walls of the alveoli are clearly separated and is as tall as the maxilla.