Eoalligator

Eoalligator
Temporal range: Early Paleocene, 65.5–59 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Reptilia
Order:Crocodilia
Family:Alligatoridae
Subfamily:Alligatorinae
Genus:†Eoalligator
Young, 1964
Type species
†Eoalligator chunyii
Young, 1964
Species
  • †E. chunyii Young, 1964 (type)

Eoalligator is an extinct genus of crocodyloid crocodilian from Paleocene deposits in China.

Systematics

Eoalligator was originally classified as an extinct relative of alligators. The holotype of E. chunyii, IVPP V2716, is a partial skeleton.[1] A second nominal species, E. huiningensis, was described in 1982 from Anhui.[2] In 2016, a re-assessment of Eocene crocodilian specimens assigned to Alligatoroidea showed that the Eoalligator type species was a crocodyloid similar to Asiatosuchus and that E. huiningensis was an alligatoroid, necessitating erection of Protoalligator for E. huiningensis. Eoalligator was synonymized with Asiatosuchus nanlingensis.[3] Later, Wu et al. (2017) disagreed with the synonymy of "Asiatosuchus" nanlingensis and Eoalligator, finding them to be distinct based on first-hand studies of the holotypes and cladistic analysis, even though they followed Wang et al. (2016) in classifying Eoalligator as a crocodyloid.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Young CC. 1964. New fossil crocodiles from China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 5:189-208
  2. ↑ Young CC. 1982. A Cenozoic crocodile from Huaining, Anhui. Selected Works of Yang Zhongjian. China: Academia Sinica. 47-48.
  3. ↑ Wang Y, Sullivan C, Liu J. (2016) Taxonomic revision of Eoalligator (Crocodylia, Brevirostres) and the paleogeographic origins of the Chinese alligatoroids. PeerJ 4:e2356 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2356
  4. ↑ Xiao-Chun Wu; Chun Li; Yan-Yin Wang (2017). Taxonomic reassessment and phylogenetic test of Asiatosuchus nanlingensis Young, 1964 and Eoalligator chunyii Young, 1964. Vertebrata PalAsiatica. in press.
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