Araripesuchus buitreraensis, POL & APESTEGUIA, 2005

POL, DIEGO & APESTEGUIA, SEBASTIAN, 2005, New Araripesuchus Remains from the Early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) of Patagonia, American Museum Novitates 3490 (1), pp. 1-39 : 3

Araripesuchus buitreraensis , new species

ETYMOLOGY: buitreraensis , from ‘‘La Buitrera’’, the new locality where the specimen was found.

HOLOTYPE: MPCA­PV 235 , isolated skull in articulation with the lower jaws, lacking external surface of ventral region of braincase.

LOCALITY AND HORIZON: ‘‘La Buitrera’’ is a recently discovered locality of the Candeleros Formation (Cenomanian, Hugo and Leanza, 2001; Cenomanian–Turonian, Corbella et al., 2004). These outcrops are located 30 km NE from Cerro Policia, Río Negro Province (NW Patagonia). The faunal assemblage recovered in this locality includes dryolestoid mammals, theropod dinosaurs, crocodyliforms, snakes, fragmentary remains of frogs and fishes, and sphenodontians ( Apesteguia and Novas, 2003). Up to now a variegated fauna has been known from the exposures of Candeleros Formation in Neuquén Province, including titanosaurian and diplodocoid sauropods ( Calvo and Bonaparte, 1991; Calvo and Salgado, 1995), carcharodontosaurid theropods ( Coria and Salgado, 1995; Calvo and Coria, 1998), chelid turtles ( Broin et al., 1997), pipoid anurans ( Baez et al., 2000), and the crocodyliform Araripesuchus patagonicus ( Ortega et al., 2000) . However, La Buitrera’s fauna differs from others, including abundant remains of small body­sized vertebrates.

DIAGNOSIS: This new taxon is diagnosed by the combination of the following characters (autapomorphic characters are indicated with an asterisk): long and acute anterior process of frontals extending anteriorly between the nasals; frontals extending into supratemporal fenestra; narrow parietal dorsal surface between supratemporal fossa; anterior palpebral remarkably broad on its anterior end; large siphoneal foramen anterior to the otic notch; T­shaped internal nares septum that completely divides the choanal opening, the ventral surface of which is as broad anteriorly as in the midregion of the septum*; pterygoid flanges pneumatic and poorly expanded at its lateral end*; transversely elongated depression on ventral surface of pterygoid flanges, close to the posterior margin of suborbital fenestra*; longitudinal groove on flat lateral surface of dentaries below toothrow.