Doratodon
| Doratodon Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
~ | |
|---|---|
| |
| Holotype mandible of D. carcharidens (specimen PIUW 2349/57) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | †Ziphosuchia |
| Genus: | †Doratodon Seeley, 1881 |
| Type species | |
| †Doratodon carcharidens Seeley, 1881
| |
| Other species | |
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Doratodon is an extinct genus of Late Cretaceous ziphodont crocodylomorph that was once believed to be a dinosaur,[1][2] that could be a sebecosuchian mesoeucrocodylian.[3] Two species of Doratodon are known to science: D. carcharidens from Austria (Grünbach Formation) and Hungary (Csehbánya Formation), the type species; and D. ibericus from Spain (Sierra Perenchiza Formation).[2][4]
The holotype of D. carcharidens consists of a denture and a mandible.[5] Other specimens include a maxilla fragment, a parietal and teeth. The holotype, and only known specimen of D. ibericus, consists of an incomplete left mandible with dentation.
History[]
In 1859, geologist Eduard Suess at the Gute Hoffnung coal mine at near Wiener Neustadt in Austria, discovered the holotype, PIUW 2349/57. With the help of mine intendant Pawlowitsch, they attempted to find the source of the fossil material. The search proved fruitless at first but ultimately a thin marl layer was discovered, intersected by an obliquely sloping mine shaft, which contained an abundant number of various archosaur fossils. These were subsequently excavated by Suess and Ferdinand Stoliczka.[6][7] The marl was a fresh water deposit, now considered part of the Grünbach Formation.[5]
Emanuel Bunzel named the type specimen as Crocodilus carcharidens in 1871.[7] He believed it to belong to a dinosaur.[7] It was renamed as the new species Doratodon carcharidens in 1881 by Harry Govier Seeley.[1] The second species, D. ibericus, was named by Company et al. in 2005.[2] Doratodon was reassessed by Zoltan et al. (2015) and Rabi & Sebok (2015) as a possible sebecosuchian mesoeucrocodylian.[5][3]
It is possible that the contemporaneous ankylosaurian dinosaur Rhadinosaurus alcimus (Seeley, 1881[1]), known only from its holotype (PIUW 2349/34), was the same animal as Doratodon carcharidens.[8]
Description[]
Doratodon is represented by its diagnostic triangular, labiolingually flattened, and mesially and distally finely serrated teeth as well as some fragmentary dentaries.[5]
Classification[]
Doratodon was initially identified as a theropod dinosaur,[1] but it was later placed within the Ziphosuchia.[2] Zoltan et al. (2015) and Rabi & Sebok (2015) placed Doratodon within Sebecosuchia,[5][3] a clade within Ziphosuchia.
Palaeobiology[]
Palaeoecology[]
Doratodon is known from at least three formations in Europe: the Grünbach Formation, the Csehbánya Formation and the Sierra Perenchiza Formation.
In the Grünbach Formation, Doratodon would have coexisted with:[5] three species of indeterminate pterosaurs (one is Ornithocheirus buenzeli), an unnamed eusuchian, an unnamed choristodere, two indeterminate turtle species, an indeterminate tetanuran theropod, the rhabdodontid Mochlodon and the nodosaurids Rhadinosaurus and Struthiosaurus.
In the Csehbánya Formation, Doratodon would have coexisted with:[5] multiple species of squamates, such as the mosasaur Pannoniasaurus and the scincomorph Chromatogenys, three species of crocodyliformes (cf. Allodaposuchus, Iharkutosuchus and cf. Theriosuchus), three species of turtles (Foxemys, Kallokibotion and Dortokidae indet.), the pterosaurs Bakonydraco, Azhdarchidae indet. and Pterodactyloidea indet., and the dinosaurs Ajkaceratops, Bauxitornis, Hungarosaurus, Mochlodon, Pneumatoraptor, Struthiosaurus, Paraves indet., Abelisauridae indet., Tetanurae indet. and an indeterminate sauropod.
In the Sierra Perenchiza Formation, Doratodon would have coexisted with:[2][9] the crocodyliformes Acynodon and Musturzabalsuchus, indeterminate turtles, an indeterminate lissamphibian, two indeterminate frog species (one species likely part of the Discoglossidae), indeterminate pterosaurs an indeterminate albanerpetontid and several indeterminate dinosaurs.
Paleobiogeography[]
Bergisuchus and Iberosuchus do not appear to be closely related to the Cretaceous sebecosuchian Doratodon, which was found across Europe during the Late Cretaceous. This appears to indicate that Bergisuchus and other European sebecosuchians did not descend from Cretaceous European sebecosuchians like Doratodon, but was instead part of a separate invasion of sebecosuchians into Europe during the Palaeogene from South America.[3]
References[]
- ^ a b c d Seeley, H. G., (1881), "The reptile fauna of the Gosau Formation preserved in the Geological Museum of the University of Vienna", Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 37(148): 620-707
- ^ a b c d e Company, J., Suberbiola, X.P., Ruiz-Omeñaca, J.I. & Buscalioni, A.D. (2005). A new species of Doratodon (Crocodyliformes: Ziphosuchia) from the Late Cretaceous of Spain. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25(2): 343–353
- ^ a b c d Rabi, M.; Sebők, N. (2015). "A revised Eurogondwana model: Late Cretaceous notosuchian crocodyliforms and other vertebrate taxa suggest the retention of episodic faunal links between Europe and Gondwana during most of the Cretaceous". Gondwana Research. 28 (3): 1197–1211. Bibcode:2015GondR..28.1197R. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2014.09.015.
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20060104042809/http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/users/haaramo/Metazoa/Deuterostoma/Chordata/Archosauria/Crocodylia/Crocodyliformes_2.html (dead link)
- ^ a b c d e f g Zoltan Csiki-Sava, Eric Buffetaut, Attila Ősi, Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola, Stephen L. Brusatte (2015) "Island life in the Cretaceous - faunal composition, biogeography, evolution, and extinction of land-living vertebrates on the Late Cretaceous European archipelago" Zookeys" 469: 1-161 doi: 10.3897/zookeys.469.8439
- ^ Bunzel, E. (1870) Notice of a fragment of a reptilian skull from the Upper Cretaceous of Grünbach. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society London 26: 394. doi: 10.1144/GSL.JGS.1870.026.01-02.35
- ^ a b c Bunzel, Emanuel (1871). "Die Reptilfauna der Gosauformation in der Neuen Welt bei Wiener-Neustadt" (PDF). Abhandlungen der Kaiserlich-königlichen Geologischen Reichsanstalt (in German). 5: 1–18. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
- ^ Buffetaut, E. (1979). Revision der Crocodylia (Reptilia) aus den Gosau-Schichten (Ober-Kreide) von Österreich. Beiträge zur Paläontologie von Österreich 6: 89–105. doi: 10.1017/S0016756810000981
- ^ Company, Julio; Szentesi, Zoltán (2012). "Amphibians from the Late Cretaceous Sierra Perenchiza Formation of the Chera Basin, Valencia Province, Spain". Cretaceous Research. 37: 240–245. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2012.04.003. ISSN 0195-6671.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | This article about a prehistoric archosaur is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by . |
- Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Europe
- Prehistoric life of Europe
- Fossil taxa described in 1881
- Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera
- Fossils of Austria
- Prehistoric archosaur stubs