| Massaliasuchus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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| Illustration of the fossilized remains from the Fuvelian Lignites of France, 1869 | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
| Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Clade: | Eusuchia |
| Clade: | †Allodaposuchidae |
| Genus: | †Massaliasuchus Martin & Buffetaut, 2008 |
| Species: | †M. affuvelensis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Massaliasuchus affuvelensis (Matheron, 1869)
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| Synonyms | |
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Massaliasuchus is an extinct monospecific genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous (Santonian–Campanian) Fuvelian Lignites of southeastern France.1 The type species is M. affuvelensis.
Systematics
Massaliasuchus was first described in 1869 by Philippe Matheron as Crocodilus affuvelensis, based on remains including skull bones.2 The new genus name was given to it in 2008 by Jeremy Martin and Eric Buffetaut. Massaliasuchus was considered to be related to early alligatoroids. Its name means "Marseille crocodile".1
Recent cladistic analysis places Massaliasuchus as a member of Allodaposuchidae, a clade of basal eusuchians from the Late Cretaceous of southern Europe.3 The genus can be distinguished from Musturzabalsuchus in having 15 alveoli in the dentary.4 However, Massaliasuchus is usually omitted from phylogenetic analyses since it is only represented by poorly-preserved material.5
References
References
- Martin, Jeremy E.; Buffetaut, Eric (2008). "Crocodilus affuvelensis Matheron, 1869 from the Late Cretaceous of southern France: a reassessment". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 152 (3): 567–580. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2007.00358.x.
- P. Matheron. (1869). Notice sur les reptiles fossiles des dépôts fluvio-lacustres crétacés du bassin à lignite de Fuveau [Notice on the fossil reptiles from the Cretaceous fluvio-lacustrine deposits of the lignitic Fuveau Basin]. Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres, et Arts de Marseille 1868–1869:345-379
- Smith, Thierry; Narváez, Iván; Brochu, Christopher A.; Escaso, Fernando; Pérez-García, Adán; Ortega, Francisco (2015). "New crocodyliforms from Southwestern Europe and definition of a diverse clade of European Late Cretaceous basal eusuchians". PLOS ONE. 10 (11) e0140679. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1040679N. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0140679. PMC 4633049. PMID 26535893.
- Narváez, I.; Brochu, C.A.; Escaso, F.; Pérez-García, A.; Ortega, F. (2016). "New Spanish Late Cretaceous eusuchian reveals the synchronic and sympatric presence of two allodaposuchids". Cretaceous Research. 65: 112–125. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2016.04.018.
- Blanco, A. (2021). "Importance of the postcranial skeleton in eusuchian phylogeny: Reassessing the systematics of allodaposuchid crocodylians". PLOS ONE. 16 (6) e0251900. Bibcode:2021PLoSO..1651900B. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0251900. PMC 8189472. PMID 34106925.