Koumpiodontosuchus
| Koumpiodontosuchus Temporal range: Barremian,
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| Holotype skull | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
| Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Clade: | Metasuchia |
| Clade: | Neosuchia |
| Family: | †Bernissartiidae |
| Genus: | †Koumpiodontosuchus Sweetman et al., 2015 |
| Type species | |
| †Koumpiodontosuchus aprosdokiti Sweetman et al., 2015
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Koumpiodontosuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform from the Early Cretaceous Wessex Formation of England. The genus contains a single species, K. aprosdokiti, named in 2015.
Discovery
The first fossilised fragment of a skull was discovered by Diane Trevarthen on a beach near Sandown on the Isle of Wight in March 2011 and it was initially identified as a juvenile of an unknown Goniopholis species. Three months later, the second fragment of the skull was found by Austin and Finley Nathan. The two fragments were donated to Dinosaur Isle.[1] Megan Jacobs also discovered an isolated tooth belonging to the same genus that was twice the size of those from the holotype. The species that the fragments belonged to was named Koumpiodontosuchus aprosdokiti, meaning "unexpected button-toothed crocodile".[2][3][4]
When the fragments were first seen by Steve Sweetman, a palaeontologist with the University of Portsmouth, he thought that they belonged to the species Bernissartia fagesii because of its small size and button-shaped teeth.[2] In 2015, Sweetman and colleagues published a paper on the discovery of the new species in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, where they named and described it.[5][6]
Classification
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In a 2026 reassessment of Koumpiodontosuchus based on CT scans of the skull, Chris T. Barker et al. included it in a phylogenetic analysis. This placed the genus as the sister taxon to Bernissartia within the family Bernissartiidae. This group was recovered as the sister to Eusuchia. These results are summarized the cladogram below:[7]
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See also
References
- ^ "This crocodile roamed earth with dinosaurs!". Business Standard. 11 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
- ^ a b "Skull fragments reveal new ancient crocodile species". BBC News. 11 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
- ^ Osbourne, Hannah (11 March 2014). "Tiny Button-Toothed Crocodile Species From 126 Million Years Ago Discovered on Isle of Wight". International Business Times. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
- ^ Sweetman, S.; Pedreira-Segade, U.; Vidovic, S. (2015). "A new bernissartiid crocodyliform from the Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation (Wealden Group, Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, southern England". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. doi:10.4202/app.00038.2013.
- ^ "Tiny crocodile skull reveals new ancient species". University of Portsmouth. 11 March 2014. Archived from the original on 19 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
- ^ "A new species of tiny crocodile that lived 126 million years ago has been discovered, from fossils found on the Isle Of Wight". Capital FM. 11 March 2014. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
- ^ Barker, Chris T; Tulloch, Ethan; Young, Mark T; Naish, Darren; Leung, Lai-Cheuk; Rankin, Kathryn; Gostling, Neil J (April 1, 2026). "Re-evaluation of the Wealden crocodyliform Koumpiodontosuchus Sweetman et al., 2015: new osteological and neuroanatomical data from micro-computed tomography resolves a phylogenetic dispute". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 206 (4). doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlag035. ISSN 0024-4082.
External links
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