Holotype of Razanandrongobe, showing teeth and associated maxillary fragment
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Reptilia
Clade:
Archosauria
Clade:
Pseudosuchia
Clade:
Crocodylomorpha
Clade:
Crocodyliformes
Clade:
Metasuchia
Clade:
†Notosuchia
Genus:
†Razanandrongobe Maganuco et al., 2006
Species:
†R. sakalavae
Binomial name
†Razanandrongobe sakalavae
Maganuco et al., 2006
Razanandrongobe (meaning "ancestor [of the] large lizard" in Malagasy) is a genus of carnivorous ziphosuchian crocodyliform from the Middle Jurassic of Madagascar. It contains the type and only species Razanandrongobe sakalavae, named in 2004 by Simone Maganuco and colleagues based on isolated bones found in 2003. The remains, which included a fragment of maxilla and teeth, originated from the Bathonian-aged Sakaraha Formation of Mahajanga, Madagascar. While they clearly belonged to a member of the Archosauria, Maganuco and colleagues refrained from assigning the genus to a specific group because the fragmentary remains resembled lineages among both the theropod dinosaurs and crocodylomorphs.
Further remains (including a premaxilla and lower jawbone) had been discovered as early as 1972, but were not described until 2017 by Cristiano Dal Sasso and colleagues. These remains allowed them to confidently assign Razanandrongobe as the oldest-known member of the Notosuchia, a group of crocodylomorphs, which partially filled a gap of 74 million years in the group's evolutionary history. Razanandrongobe shows a number of adaptations to a diet containing bones and tendons, including teeth with large serrations and bony structures reinforcing its palate and teeth. Measuring 7 metres (23 ft) long, it was the largest member of the Notosuchia and may have occupied a predatory ecological niche similar to theropods.
Razanandrongobe (meaning "ancestor [of the] large lizard" in Malagasy) is a genus of carnivorous ziphosuchian crocodyliform from the Middle Jurassic of...
morphological traits. Dal Sasso C, Pasini G, Fleury G, Maganuco S. (2017) Razanandrongobe sakalavae, a gigantic mesoeucrocodylian from the Middle Jurassic of...
would place the oldest records of Neosuchia in the Middle Jurassic. Razanandrongobe from the Middle Jurassic of Madagascar has been suggested the represent...
baurusuchids and become extinct in the Miocene with the last sebecids, but Razanandrongobe pushes the origin of Sebecosuchia to the Middle Jurassic. Fossils have...
sister group of Neosuchia, a clade that includes modern crocodilians. Razanandrongobe is the oldest representative of this clade. Ortega, F.; Gasparini,...
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