A pug-nosed crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar

Although the image of crocodyliforms as 'unchanged living fossils' is naive , several morphological features of the group are thought to have varied on ly within narrow limits during the course of evolution(1). These include an elongate snout with an array of conical teeth, a dorsoventrally flattened skull and a posteriorly positioned jaw articulation, which provides a power ful bite force. Here we report an exquisitely preserved specimen of a new t axon from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar that deviates profoundly from t his Bauplan, possessing an extremely blunt snout, a tall, rounded skull, an anteriorly shifted jaw joint and clove-shaped, multicusped teeth reminisce nt of those of some ornithischian dinosaurs. This last feature implies that the diet of the new taxon may have been predominantly if not exclusively h erbivorous. A close relationship with notosuchid crocodyliforms, particular ly Uruguaysuchus (Late Cretaceous, Uruguay)(2) is suggested by several shar ed derived features; this supports a biogeographical hypothesis that Madaga scar and South America were linked during the Late Cretaceous(3).