Anatosuchus

Anatosuchus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
An artist's interpretation of Anatosuchus minor
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
clade:	Metasuchia
Superorder:	Crocodylomorpha
Suborder:	†Notosuchia
Genus:	†Anatosuchus Sereno et al., 2003
Binomial name
†Anatosuchus minor Sereno et al., 2003

Anatosuchus ("duck crocodile", the name from the Latin anas ("duck") and the Greek souchos ("crocodile"), for the broad, duck-like snout) is an extinct genus of notosuchian crocodylomorph discovered in Gadoufaoua, Niger, and described by a team of palaeontologists led by the American Paul Sereno in 2003, in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.[1] Its duck-like snout coincidentally makes it resemble a crocoduck, an imagined hybrid animal with the head of a crocodile and the body of a duck.

Species and discovery

The type species of Anatosuchus is A. minor, in reference to its small body size. The holotype material (MNN GDF603), is a nearly complete skull with articulated lower jaws. It was discovered from the upper portion of the Elrhaz Formation and lower portion of Echkar Formation, indicating an Early Cretaceous (Late Aptian or Early Albian) age.

Systematics

In the initial description of Anatosuchus, it formed a clade with Comahuesuchus, within a less inclusive Notosuchia, also found to be monophyletic.[1] However, further work proposed that Anatosuchus is not closely related to Comahuesuchus.