Angistorhinus
Name:
Angistorhinus
(narrow snout).
Phonetic: An-jis-to-ry-nus.
Named By: M. G. Mehl - 1913.
Classification: Chordata, Phytosauria,
Phytosauridae.
Species: A. grandis
(type), A. talainti?
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Skull of A. grandis
about 120
centimetres long.
Known locations: USA, Arizona - Chinle
Formation, New Mexico - Santa Rosa Formation, Texas -
Colorado City Formation and Wyoming - Popo Agie Formation.
Possibly Morocco.
Time period: Norian/Rhaetian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Several individuals mostly
known from skulls, but some post cranial remains also known.
With
skulls measuring about one hundred and twenty centimetres long,
Angistorhinus was easily amongst the largest phytosaurs,
crocodile-like reptiles that hunted in Triassic waterways. The jaws
of Angistorhinus were long and thin, more akin to
those of a gharial,
perhaps indicating that Angistorhinus was more of
a fish hunter. The
nostrils of Angistorhinus were situated further
back on the skull,
a feature that is not just indicative of a more advanced phytosaur
form, but also kept the nostrils free from the water when the snout
was dipped underneath.
Angistorhinus
has in the past been considered as a synonym to the genus Rutiodon,
but later studies have continued to retain Angistorhinus
as a distinct
genus. One sometimes mentioned species of Angistorhinus,
A.
megalodon, is more often credited as the genus Brachysuchus.
Fossils from Morocco have been tentatively place in the genus as a new
species, A. talainti.
Further reading
- Angistorhinus, a new genus of Phytosauria
from the Trias of
Wyoming. - Journal of Geology 21:186-191. - M. G. Mehl
- 1913.
- Description du craˆne de Angistorhinus talainti n.
sp.
un
nouveau Phytosaure du Trais atlasique marocain. - Bulletin du
Mus�um National d'Histoire Naturelle 3 (489): 297–336. -
J. -M. Dutuit - 1977.
- Status and phylogenetic relationships of the Late Triassic
phytosaur Rutiodon carolinensis. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology 21 (3 Suppl.): 64A. - A. Hungerb�hler -
& H. -D. Sues - 2001.
- Postcranial anatomy of Angistorhinus, a Late
Triassic phytosaur
from West Texas. - S. G. Lucas, A. B. Heckert &
R. Kahle - 2002. In Upper Triassic Stratigraphy and
Paleontology, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
Bulletin 21: 157–164 (A. B. Heckert, S. G. Lucas -
eds). 2002.
- A new taxon of phytosaur (Archosauria: Pseudosuchia) from the
Late Triassic (Norian) Sonsela Member (Chinle Formation) in
Arizona, and a critical re-evaluation of Leptosuchus
Case, 1922.
- Palaeontology 53 (5): 997–1022. - Michelle R.
Stocker - 2010.
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