A new species of the metriorhynchid crocodylomorph Cricosaurus from the Upper Jurassic of southern Germany

Abstract

Here we describe a new species of the metriorhynchid thalattosuchian Cricosaurus, C. bambergensis sp. nov., from the Upper Jurassic Torleite Formation of Wattendorf near Bamberg, Bavaria (southern Germany). The holotype and only known specimen is a nearly complete skeleton that shows a number of diagnostic traits including a bicarinate dentition formed by labiolingually compressed tooth crowns that lack a conspicuous enamel ornamentation and the presence of a distinct midline ridge with paired depressions on the palatines. Our phylogenetic analysis recovers a grouping of Cricosaurus bambergensis sp. nov. with C. elegans and C. suevicus. The implications of the new Cricosaurus species to the species complex from the late Kimmeridgian-early Tithonian of southern Germany is discussed. Our description of C. bambergensis demonstrates that the specific, and morphological, diversity of Cricosaurus in southern Germany was higher than previously thought. This coincides with the recent trend of re-evaluating the species-complexes of extant taxa, and the identification of new "cryptic species". As such, the crocodylomorph fossil record will need to be reexamined to ensure there is not an underestimation of their biodiversity.

The phylogenetics of Teleosauroidea (Crocodylomorpha, Thalattosuchia) and implications for their ecology and evolution

“…It has since grown substantially over the past three years, with the addition of new taxa and characters. It was first presented in Ristevski et al (2018) and has been updated subsequently since then ( Ősi et al, 2018 ; Foffa et al, 2019 ; Johnson, Young & Brusatte, 2019 ; Sachs et al, 2019a , 2019b ).…”

“…The foundation of our character sampling is the H+Y dataset, which initially included 387 characters ( Ristevski et al, 2018 ), with 289 dental+craniomandibular, 95 post-cranial and three soft tissue. Ősi et al (2018) contained 454 characters (334 dental+craniomandibular, 116 post-cranial and four soft tissue); Foffa et al (2019) incorporated 456 characters (336 dental+craniomandibular, 116 postcranial and four soft tissue); Johnson, Young & Brusatte (2019) included 464 characters (339 dental+craniomandibular, 120 post-cranial and five soft tissue); Sachs et al (2019a) incorporated 462 characters (337 dental+craniomandibular, 120 post-cranial and five soft tissue); and Sachs et al (2019b) used 460 characters (337 dental+craniomandibular, 118 post-cranial and five soft tissue).…”

“…The complete list of 502 characters are presented the Supplemental Material SD1 , similar to Ősi et al (2018) , Foffa et al (2019) , Johnson, Young & Brusatte (2019) and Sachs et al (2019a , 2019b) . Newly added characters are represented by (NEW), ordered characters are specified by (ORDERED), and characters that cannot be scored (e.g.…”

“…Our dataset, which includes 153 OTUs and 502 characters, was analysed by conducting unweighted and weighted maximum parsimony analyses using TNT 1.5 Willi Hennig Society Edition ( Goloboff, Farris & Nixon, 2008 ; Goloboff & Catalano, 2016 ), following previous iterations ( Ősi et al, 2018 ; Foffa et al, 2019 ; Johnson, Young & Brusatte, 2019 ; Sachs et al, 2019a , 2019b ).…”

“…and Teleosauroidea indeterminate specimens were examined. Overall, approximately 550 teleosauroid specimens were personally studied by MM Johnson. The complete list of 502 characters are presented the Supplemental Material SD1, similar to Ősi et al (2018), Foffa et al (2019), and Sachs et al (2019aSachs et al ( , 2019b. Newly added characters are represented by (NEW), ordered characters are specified by (ORDERED), and characters that cannot be scored (e.g.…”