Biology:Koumpiodontosuchus

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Short description: Extinct genus of reptiles

Koumpiodontosuchus
Temporal range: Barremian, 130–125 Ma
Koumpiodontosuchus aprosdokiti.jpg
Holotype skull
Scientific classification e
Missing taxonomy template (fix): Archosauria/Reptilia
Clade: Pseudosuchia
Clade: Crocodylomorpha
Clade: Crocodyliformes
Clade: Metasuchia
Clade: Neosuchia
Family: Bernissartiidae
Genus: Koumpiodontosuchus
Sweetman et al., 2015
Type species
Koumpiodontosuchus aprosdokiti
Sweetman et al., 2014

Koumpiodontosuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform that lived in the Early Cretaceous. The only species is K. aprosdokiti, named in 2014.[1]

Discovery

Restoration of a Koumpiodontosuchus feeding on the viviparid gastropod Viviparus carinifer. Smaller gastropods shown include Prophysa sp.

The first fossilised fragment of a skull was discovered by Diane Trevarthen on a beach near Sandown on the Isle of Wight in March 2011. Three months later, the second fragment of the skull was found by Austin and Finley Nathan. The two fragments were donated to Dinosaur Isle.[2] Megan Jacobs also discovered an isolated tooth belonging to the same genus that was twice the size of those from the holotype. The species that the fragments belonged to was named Koumpiodontosuchus aprosdokiti, meaning "unexpected button-toothed crocodile".[3][4]

When the fragments were first seen by Steve Sweetman, a palaeontologist with the University of Portsmouth, he thought that they belonged to the Bernissartia fagesii species because of its small size and button-shaped teeth.[3] Sweetman published a paper on the discovery of the new species in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica and it was named and described in 2014.[5][6]

See also

References

External links

Wikidata ☰ Q16004482 entry