Descrição morfológica do crânio e mandíbula de Stratiotosuchus maxhechti (Crocodylomorpha, Cretáceo Superior do Brasil) e seu posicionamento filogenético

Abstract

A detailed description of the skull and mandible of the crocodylomorph Stratiotosuchus maxhechti Campos, Suarez, Riff & Kellner, 2001 is presented here. This specimen (DGM 1477-R; housed at the Museu de Ciências da Terra, DNPM, Rio de Janeiro) was collected in 1988 at outcrops of the Adamantina Formation (Upper Cretaceous) in the western part of the São Paulo State. The laterally compressed rostrum, the presence of a huge, strongly grooved and flexed jugal, and the presence of only five maxillary theropodomorph teeth supports the allocation of Stratiotosuchus maxhechti to the Baurusuchidae. lt differs from other species of this clade by the marked depression of the posterodorsal surface of the frontals and the inflated lateral edges of the maxillae. Since the skull of Stratiotosuchus maxhechti is the most complete Baurusuchidae known to date, it presents several new cranial data for a member of this group, particularly details of the occipital and palatal region which are described here for the first time. This material also allowed the identification of an individualized parasphenoid, that has never been reported in an adult crocodylornorph before. Several aspects of cranial morphology, like the occipital ornamentation, the Eustachian morphology, and the dentition, supports the general idea that Stratiotosuchus (and perhaps all baurusuchids) have had terrestrial habits.