Pholidosaurus
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Pholidosaurus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous |
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| Pholidosaurus meyeri skull fossil at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Family: | †Pholidosauridae |
| Genus: |
†Pholidosaurus Meyer, 1841 |
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Pholidosaurus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodylomorph. It is the type genus of the family Pholidosauridae. Fossils have been found in northwestern Germany. The genus is known to have existed during the Berriasian stage of the Early Cretaceous. Fossil material found from the Annero and Jydegård Formations in Skåne, Sweden and on the island of Bornholm, Denmark, have been referred to as a mesoeucrocodylian, and possibly represent the genus Pholidosaurus.
An early description of the genus by Lydekker (1888) mentioned that the orbit is slightly smaller than the supratemporal fossa, the nasals reach the premaxillae, and the vomer appears on the palate. It is similar in appearance to and about as large as the modern gharial.
The type species of Pholidosaurus is P. schaumburgensis, named in 1841 from the Wealden of Bückeburg, Germany.P. schaumburgensis was named on the basis of a natural mould of part of a thorax discovered in around 1830 from the Berriasian Obernkirchen Sandstein. This mould is known as IMGPGö 741-1. The individual that the mould belonged to is thought to have been around 25 centimetres (9.8 in) in length.
Macrorhynchus is a junior synonym of Pholidosaurus. It was named in 1843 from the same stratigraphic unit and region as P. schaumbergensis, with the type species being M. meyeri. Because M. meyeri bears a strong resemblance to Pholidosaurus schaumburgensis, it is now regarded as a species of Pholidosaurus. It was reassigned to the genus Pholidosaurus in 1887 by Richard Lydekker because of this synonymy, and also because the name Macrorhynchus was preoccupied by a genus of fish named in 1880.P. meyeri differs from P. schaumburgensis in that the bar separating the supratemporal fenestrae is rounded, while in the type species it is rounded.
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