Neptunidraco
| Neptunidraco Temporal range: Middle Jurassic, | |
|---|---|
| Holotype | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Archosauria |
| Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
| Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Suborder: | †Thalattosuchia |
| Family: | †Metriorhynchidae |
| Subfamily: | †Geosaurinae |
| Genus: | †Neptunidraco Cau & Fanti, 2011 |
| Species | |
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Neptunidraco (meaning "Neptune's dragon") is an extinct genus of carnivorous marine crocodyliform that lived during the middle Jurassic period (late Bajocian to earliest Bathonian stage) in what is now northeastern Italy. It is known from a partial skeleton (incomplete skull with mandible) recovered from the nodular limestone of the Rosso Ammonitico Veronese Formation. This specimen had been provisionally referred to an unnamed species of Late Jurassic Metriorhynchus or Geosaurus. Neptunidraco was named by Andrea Cau and Federico Fanti in 2011 and the type species is Neptunidraco ammoniticus. The "Portomaggiore crocodile" is the most complete specimen of an Italian metriorhynchid to date and the oldest known metriorhynchid.
In 2013, Andrea Cau suggested that the possible specimen of this genus, MGP-PD 26552 (catalog erroneously spelled as 6552, the intended type specimen of the informal name "Steneosaurus barettoni"), would have measured 3.7 m (12 ft) in total body length, though the 2023 study suggested that the specimen belongs to a separate indeterminate metriorhynchid.