Dibothrosuchus elaphros Simmons, 1965

Nesbitt, Sterling J., 2011, The Early Evolution Of Archosaurs: Relationships And The Origin Of Major Clades, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (352), pp. 1-292 : 41

Dibothrosuchus elaphros Simmons, 1965

AGE: Early Jurassic, Sinemurian-Pliensbachian stage ( Sun and Cui, 1986; Luo and Wu, 1994, 1995).

OCCURRENCE: Zhangjiawa Formation, Lower Lufeng Group, Huangchiatien, Lufeng, Yunnan, China.

HOLOTYPE: CUP 2081, partial jaw and postcranial skeleton.

REFERRED MATERIAL: CUP 2489, partial postcranial skeleton; IVPP V 7907, complete skull and partial postcranium including the cervical vertebrae and osteoderms, humerus, ulna, radius, scapula, coracoid, manus, ilium.

REMARKS: Dibothrosuchus was originally described from incomplete skull fragments and partial limb bones by Simmons (1965). Wu and Chatterjee (1993) referred a complete, well-prepared skull and the anterior portion of a skeleton to the taxon, and their referral is accepted here. Like Sphenosuchus , Dibothrosuchus is known from an articulated skull with a well-preserved braincase, a combination that is rare among basal archosaurs. Although many fragmentary specimens were referred to Dibothrosuchus , I score only IVPP V 7907 for this analysis.

KEY REFERENCES: Simmons, 1965; Wu, 1986; Wu and Chatterjee, 1993; Clark et al., 2000.