MESOEUCROCODYLIA Whetstone and Whybrow, 1983

Puértolas Pascual, E, Rabal Garcés, R & Canudo, JI, 2015, Exceptional crocodylomorph biodiversity of " La Cantalera " site (lower Barremian; Lower Cretaceous) in Teruel, Spain, Palaeontologia Electronica (Basel, Switzerland) 13 (1), pp. 1-16 : 10

Clade MESOEUCROCODYLIA Whetstone and Whybrow, 1983 (sensu Benton and Clark, 1988) Family, Genus and species undetermined

Figure 6.2

Material. 1 isolated tooth (0.27% of the sample = 365 teeth; MPZ 2014/484).

Description. Relatively large tooth (about 1 cm) with spatulate morphology, mediolaterally compressed and with a low crown. The lingual and labial faces have two longitudinal grooves dividing the enamel into three bulbous surfaces that are more pronounced towards the base of the tooth. The enamel is smooth and has mesial and distal carinae with true denticles of variable size. One of the carinae forks into two at the base of the tooth.

Remarks. The overall tooth morphology resembles that of the spatulate teeth of Atoposauridae . However, we do not know other crocodylomorphs with this kind of enamel ornamentation and the presence of bifurcated carinae, so it has been assigned to Mesoeucrocodylia indet. Given that only one tooth with this strange morphology has been found, the carinae could be the result of some form of pathology.

Figures

FIGURE 6. 1, MPZ 2014/483; ziphodont crocodylomorph tooth attributed to Mesoeucrocodylia indet. in mesial/distal, labial, lingual (with detail of the denticles), apical (above) and radicular (below) views. 2, MPZ 2014/484; bizarre crocodylomorph tooth attributed to Mesoeucrocodylia indet. in mesial/distal (arrows show the bifurcated keel), labial, lingual, apical (above) and radicular (below) views. All photographs taken with a binocular microscope. Scale bars equal 1 mm.