Acallosuchus
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Acallosuchus Temporal range: Late Triassic, 220 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Neodiapsida |
| Clade: | incertae sedis |
| Genus: |
†Acallosuchus Murry and Long, 1989 |
| Species | |
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Acallosuchus (meaning "ugly crocodile" in Greek) is an extinct genus of reptile from the Triassic Chinle Formation of the southwestern United States. Although it was discovered in 1923, Acallosuchus was not described until 1989, when the type species A. rectori was named. The taxonomy classification of Acallosuchus is uncertain. Although it is known to be a neodiapsid reptile, it has not been assigned with confidence to any particular group of neodiapsids.
In 1923, paleontologist Charles Lewis Camp discovered a bone in the Chinle Formation in Petrified Forest National Park (at the time a National Monument). It was found on top of a Placerias jaw in an area called Crocodile Hill, part of the late Carnian-age Blue Mesa Member of the formation. The bone included the skull and lower jaws of a reptile, but when Camp removed it from the surrounding rock, then it broke apart. Camp described the skull as being 6 inches (15 cm) long, with a broken rostrum, and thought it belonged to a pterosaur or small dinosaur. Camp's description of this specimen was confined to his field notes and was not published.
In 1983, sixty years after it was first found, the specimen was rediscovered in a cigar box in a storage room of the University of California Museum of Paleontology. Bone fragments were crushed and did not resemble the sketches Camp made in his notes. The specimen was cataloged as UCMP 7038/27095 and formally described in 1989 as a new genus and species, Acallosuchus rectori. The term "Acallosuchus" means "ugly crocodile" from the Greek "akalles" ("ugly") and "suchus" ("crocodile"). The species was named after Roger Rector, a former superintendent of Petrified Forest National Park, and his wife.
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