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 : 9

Clade MESOEUCROCODYLIA Whetstone and Whybrow, 1983 (sensu Benton and Clark, 1988)

Family, Genus and species undetermined

Figure 6.1

Referred material. 3 isolated teeth (0.82% of the sample = 365 teeth; MPZ 2014/483 and 842).

Description. Conical teeth with high crowns, a circular cross-section at the base and a sharp apex curved lingually and distally. Their relatively large size varies between 5 and 10 mm. The enamel ornamentation is somewhat variable and may be smooth or with fine longitudinal ridges. The lingual and labial surfaces are separated by carinae with true denticles (ziphodont), with the labial surface slightly more convex than the lingual face. A tooth is ziphodont when the denticles are not the result of the prolongation of the enamel ridges ( Prasad and Broin, 2002).

Remarks. The term “ziphodont” has long been applied to Mesoeucrocodylia , including several genera from such a broad range of families that they may well not be monophyletic. Typical taxa with true ziphodont dentition are notosuchians, planocraniids and some peirosaurids. The use of ziphodont dentition as a criterion for the taxonomic classification of isolated teeth must thus be taken with caution since it is considered to be of limited value as phylogenetic information ( Turner, 2006; Andrade and Bertini, 2008). This type of dentition was present in highly predatory terrestrial crocodylomorphs, thus having ecological rather than phylogenetic implications ( Andrade and Bertini, 2008). For this reason, we have chosen to assign this morphotype to Mesoeucrocodylia indet.

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.