Puercosuchus (translated literally as "Puerco River crocodile") is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile from the Late Triassic (Norian) of what is now Arizona, North America. It includes only the type species P. traverorum, and was described and named in 2022. Puercosuchus is known mainly from two bonebeds in the Blue Mesa Member of the Chinle Formation, preserving the mixed remains of multiple individuals in each one representing almost the entire skeleton. It is a member of the Azendohsauridae, a clade of Triassic reptiles that was initially recognised by adaptations for herbivory. However, Puercosuchus and its close relatives in the subclade Malerisaurinae retained the carnivorous diet and body form ancestral to archosauromorphs. Unlike non-malerisaurine azendohsaurids, Puercosuchus had a long and shallow snout with sharp, blade-like teeth similar to those of carnivorous dinosaurs. Despite its seemingly ancestral morphology and ecology, Puercosuchus is the youngest known genus of azendohsaurid in the world. The discovery of Puercosuchus allowed palaeontologists to recognise similar bones and teeth that had been collected from Late Triassic southwestern North America in the past as belonging to it or similar animals, acting as a sort of "rosetta stone" for malerisaurine azendohsaurid anatomy.
morphology and ecology, Puercosuchus is the youngest known genus of azendohsaurid in the world. The discovery of Puercosuchus allowed palaeontologists...
grouped into the subfamily-level subclade Malerisaurinae, Malerisaurus and Puercosuchus, and potentially also the dubious genus Otischalkia. Most fossils of...
Nesbitt, Sterling J.; Kligman, Ben T.; Stocker, Michelle R. (July 2022). "Puercosuchus traverorum n. gen. n. sp.: a new malerisaurine azendohsaurid (Archosauromorpha:...
Azendohsauridae. They recovered Malerisaurus langstoni as the sister taxon to Puercosuchus, with this clade in turn sister to Malerisaurus robinsonae, together...
Nesbitt, Sterling J.; Kligman, Ben T.; Stocker, Michelle R. (2022). "Puercosuchus traverorum n. gen. n. sp.: a new malerisaurine azendohsaurid (Archosauromorpha:...
Nesbitt, Sterling J.; Kligman, Ben T.; Stocker, Michelle R. (2022). "Puercosuchus traverorum n. gen. n. sp.: a new malerisaurine azendohsaurid (Archosauromorpha:...
Nesbitt, Sterling J.; Kligman, Ben T.; Stocker, Michelle R. (July 2022). "Puercosuchus traverorum n. gen. n. sp.: a new malerisaurine azendohsaurid (Archosauromorpha:...
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