Baurusuchus

Baurusuchus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
Skull of Baurusuchus salgadoensis
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauria
Clade: Pseudosuchia
Clade: Crocodylomorpha
Clade: Notosuchia
Clade: Sebecosuchia
Family: Baurusuchidae
Subfamily: Baurusuchinae
Genus: Baurusuchus
Price, 1945
Type species
Baurusuchus pachecoi
Price, 1945
Other species
  • B. albertoi?
    Nascimento & Zaher, 2010
  • B. salgadoensis
    Carvalho et al., 2005

Baurusuchus is an extinct genus of baurusuchid mesoeucrocodylian, which lived in Brazil from 90 to 83.5 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous period. It was a terrestrial predator, estimated to reach up to 113.4 kilograms (250 lb) in weight. Baurusuchus lived during the Turonian to Santonian stages of the Late Cretaceous Period, in Adamantina Formation, Brazil. It gets its name from the Brazilian Bauru Group ("Bauru crocodile"). It was related to the earlier-named Cynodontosuchus rothi, which was smaller, with weaker dentition. The three species are B. pachecoi, named after Eng Joviano Pacheco, its discoverer, B. salgadoensis (named after General Salgado County in São Paulo, Brazil) and B. albertoi (named after Alberto Barbosa de Carvalho, Brazilian paleontologist). The latter species is disputed (see phylogeny section). Its relatives include the similarly sized Stratiotosuchus from the Adamantina Formation, and Pabweshi, from the Pakistani Pab Formation.