Descrição morfológica de um novo Barusuchidae (Pseudosuchia crocodyliformes) da formação Adamantina (Neocretáceo, Grupo Baru) de Campina Verde, Minas Gerais, Brasil.

Abstract

Baurusuchidae comprises a group of top predatory crocodyliforms typical of continental South American faunas during the Late Cretaceous. Baurussuchids are characterized by having a short and tall rostrum, a reduced number of teeth, and ziphodont morphology, in addition to hypertrophied canine teeth. Skull morphology is historically the most used tool to understand the evolution of baurusuchids, considering that most species were described based on cranial elements. The great diversity of this group comes from deposits of the Adamantina Formation in the Bauru Group, where nine of the eleven species recognized for the group were found. We present here the cranial description of the crocodyliform specimen collected at the site “Fazenda Seis Irmãos Grotas”, in the district of Honorópolis, municipality of Campina Verde (MG). The presence of the longitudinal midline depression in the anterior portion of the frontal raised and hypertrophied supratemporal borders extending to the anterior border of the external supratemporal fenestrae, and the presence of the fenestra and parachoanal depressions in the pterygoids, the new taxon was placed in the Pissarrachampsinae clade. The new species shares morphological characteristics with both groups, suggesting the occurrence of “Zones of Variability” in the radiation of Baurusuchidae. However, further investigations are needed to contextualize the origin of the Baurusuchidae within such macroevolutionary models.