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Notochampsa

Extinct genus of reptiles

Extinct genus of reptiles

Notochampsa is an extinct genus of protosuchian crocodyliform. Fossils have been found from the lower Clarens Formation of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa, dating back to the Pliensbachian stage of the Early Jurassic. Notochampsa comes from a period of relative fossil scarcity, and is the youngest known occurrence of a crocodylomorph (and vertebrate body fossil) from the Karoo Basin of South Africa.

Taxonomy

The genus was named in a paper published in 1904 by Robert Broom. The type species was named N. istedana, and a second species, named N. longipes, was also described. Later in 1924, N. longipes was given its own genus, Erythrochampsa. In that paper, Sidney Haughton created the family Notochampsidae for Notochampsa. Notochampsa was later used to include other genera of protosuchians such as Dyoplax, Pedeticosaurus, Platyognathus, and Protosuchus, and later Microchampsa and Orthosuchus. Notochampsa had also once been assigned to the suborder Sphenosuchia. A revision in 2021 found it valid taxon, and phylogenetic analysis recovered it as sister to Orthosuchus, in a monophyletic Notochampsidae. The cladogram below is from that study.

References

References

  1. (2021). "Revised anatomy, taxonomy and biostratigraphy of Notochampsa istedana Broom, 1904, a Lower Jurassic crocodyliform from the Clarens Formation (Stormberg Group), and its implications for early crocodyliform phylogeny". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
  2. Walker, A. D.. (1990). "A revision of ''Sphenosuchus acutus'' Haughton, a crocodylomorph reptile from the Elliot Formation (Late Triassic or Early Jurassic) of South Africa". Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences.
  3. Nash, D. S.. (1975). "The morphology and relationships of a crocodilian, ''Orthosuchus stormbergi'', from the Upper Triassic of Lesotho". Annals of the South African Museum.
  4. Durand, J. F.. (2005). "Major African contributions to Palaeozoic and Mesozoic vertebrate palaeontology". Journal of African Earth Sciences.
  5. Kitching, J. W.. (1984). "Fossils from the Elliot and Clarens formations (Karoo sequence) of the northeastern Cape, Orange Free State and Lesotho, and a suggested biozonation based on tetrapods". Paleontologica Africana.
  6. Broom, R.. (1904). "On a new crocodilian genus (''Notochampsa'') from the upper Stormberg beds of South Africa". Geological Magazine.
  7. Haughton, S. H.. (1924). "The fauna and stratigraphy of the Stormberg Series". Annals of the South African Museum.
  8. Romer, A. S.. (1956). "Osteology of the Reptiles". University of Chicago Press.
  9. Steel, R.. (1973). "Handbuch der Palaoherpetologie". G. Fischer Verlag.
  10. Huene, F. von. (1925). "Die Bedeutung der ''Sphenosuchus''-Gruppe fur den Ursprung der Krokodile". Z. Indukt. Abstamm.-u. Vererblehre.
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crocodyliformes early-jurassic-crocodylomorphs jurassic-reptiles-of-africa prehistoric-pseudosuchian-genera
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