Bottosaurus

Bottosaurus; Temporal range: Maastrichtian - Paleocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Subclass:	Diapsida
Infraclass:	Archosauromorpha
(unranked):	Crurotarsi
Superorder:	Crocodylomorpha
Order:	Crocodilia
Family:	Alligatoridae
Genus:	Bottosaurus; Agassiz, 1849
Species
	B. fustidens Cossette, 2020 ; B. harlani (von Meyer, 1832) (type) ; B. tuberculatus Cope, 1869 ;

Bottosaurus is an extinct genus of alligatoroid from the Late Cretaceous-Early Paleocene of New Jersey, North and South Carolina. Three species are currently known.

Description

Bottosaurus had distinctively thick osteoderms that lacked the pitting of most other crocodylians. The unusual blunt, conical tribodontid crushing teeth are the most common diagnostic material to fossilize and be recovered, although teeth from the posterior portion of the jaw tend to be more laterally compressed like those of other related crocodiles. The teeth had a "wrinkled" enamel surface and prominent annual rings with vertical ridges running down them. A short, massive lower jaw that is nearly circular in cross-section is evident from remains of the type species B. harlani. The linear frontoparietal suture between the supratemporal fenestrae indicates that Bottosaurus is related the caimans.[1]

Distribution

The genus is predominantly found from Late Cretaceous strata of Maastrichtian age, such as the Hornerstown Formation and New Jersey Greensands. New material has been found from the Rhems and Williamsburg Formations of the Black Mingo Group of the South Carolina coastal plain that dates back to the Danian and Thanetian stages of the Paleocene epoch, respectively, shows that Bottosaurus had survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event and lived through much of the early Paleogene period in these localities before finally becoming extinct somewhere around the end of the Paleocene.[2]

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References

Cossette, A. P., and C. A. Brochu. 2018. A new specimen of the alligatoroid Bottosaurus harlani and the early history of character evolution in alligatorids. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI:10.1080/02724634.2018.1486321.
Erickson, B. R. (1998). Crocodilians of the Black Mingo Group (Paleocene) of the South Carolina Coastal Plain; pp. 196-214 in A. E. Sanders (ed.), Paleobiology of the Williamsburg Formation (Black Mingo Group; Paleocene) of South Carolina, U. S. A., Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 88(4)

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[1] Cossette, A. P., and C. A. Brochu. 2018. A new specimen of the alligatoroid Bottosaurus harlani and the early history of character evolution in alligatorids. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI:10.1080/02724634.2018.1486321.

[2] Erickson, B. R. (1998). Crocodilians of the Black Mingo Group (Paleocene) of the South Carolina Coastal Plain; pp. 196-214 in A. E. Sanders (ed.), Paleobiology of the Williamsburg Formation (Black Mingo Group; Paleocene) of South Carolina, U. S. A., Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 88(4)