Sphagesauridae Kuhn, 1968

Iori, Fabiano Vidoi, Marinho, Thiago Da Silva, Carvalho, Ismar De Souza & Campos, Antonio Celso De Arruda, 2013, Taxonomic reappraisal of the sphagesaurid crocodyliform Sphagesaurus montealtensis from the Late Cretaceous Adamantina Formation of São Paulo State, Brazil, Zootaxa 3686 (2), pp. 183-200 : 184-185

Sphagesauridae Kuhn, 1968

Referred specimens. Sphagesaurus huenei ( DGM 332-R, DGM 333-R, RCL-100), Armadillosuchus arrudai ( UFRJ DG 303-R, MPMA 64-0001/04, UFRJ DG 380-R), Caryonosuchus pricei ( DGM 1411-R), Caipirasuchus paulistanus ( MPMA 67-0001/00) and Caipirasuchus montealtensis comb. nov. ( MPMA 15-0001/90, MPMA 68- 0003/12)

Diagnosis. The unique character of the Sphagesauridae is the presence of six sphagesauriform teeth in each maxilla and six in each dentary (Iori et al. 2011). The sphagesauriform teeth possess long roots (approximately 1.5 times the height of the crown) and short crowns, triangular in shape and covered by a relatively thick layer of enamel with a denticulate keel and longitudinal striae ( Kuhn 1968). These teeth are medioposteriorly compressed with the long axis oriented obliquely; the keels display a posterolingual orientation in the maxillary teeth and an anterolabial orientation in the mandibular posterior teeth ( Marinho & Carvalho 2007).

Other general characteristics of the sphagesaurids are: the crowns of the premaxillary teeth are circular in cross-section; the premaxilla has at least two teeth: a hypertrophied caniniform tooth and a post-caniniform tooth with a conical crown and circular cross-section; the maxilla has six teeth, all sphagesauriform, that are teardropshaped in cross-section and obliquely implanted, except for the last tooth of the series, which may have its major axis transversely oriented to the sagittal axis; the dentary has six posterior sphagesauriform teeth, all obliquely implanted, except for the first tooth of the series, which is anteroposteriorly oriented; the presence of three to four anterior dentary teeth, all conical and bearing apico-basally oriented grooves (Iori et al. 2011).