New study confirms the power of Deinosuchus, Cretaceous, North America

[Oxytropidoceras]

New study confirms the power of Deinosuchus and

its 'teeth the size of bananas' by Taylor & Francis

 

The open access paper is:

 

Cossette, A.P. and Brochu, C.A., 2020. A systematic 

review of the giant alligatoroid Deinosuchus from 

the Campanian of North America and its implications 

for the relationships at the root of Crocodylia. 

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, p.e1767638.

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

[Macrophyseter]

It's a bit intriguing that the authors of the study are also petitioning the ICZN the change the type species of Deinosuchus from D. hatcheri to D. riograndensis. I'm not aware of any rules concerning changing the type species of a genus, are the rules flexible enough to make such a move?

[DD1991]

On 8/12/2020 at 10:19 AM, Macrophyseter said:

It's a bit intriguing that the authors of the study are also petitioning the ICZN the change the type species of Deinosuchus from D. hatcheri to D. riograndensis. I'm not aware of any rules concerning changing the type species of a genus, are the rules flexible enough to make such a move?

The Deinosuchus hatcheri holotype is the only Deinosuchus specimen from northern Laramidia. Maybe someone has found a specimen from near the D. hatcheri type locality, in the process of describing it. The synonymy of hatcheri with D. rugosus seemed untenable, and Irmis et al. (2013) reinstated hatcheri as the epithet for the Deinosuchus type species.