| Laevisuchus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian 70–66Ma | |
|---|---|
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| Life Restoration as a nosaurinae by Dadinonerdboi | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Family: | †Noasauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Noasaurinae (?) |
| Genus: | †Laevisuchus Huene & Matley, 1933 |
| Binomial name | |
| †Laevisuchus indicus Huene & Matley, 1933 | |
Laevisuchus is a noasaurid theropod from late Cretaceous India. Little is known of this small theropod. According to a 2024 study, Jubbulpuria has been classified as the junior synonym of Laevisuchus. The type species is L. indicus.
Description[]
Laevisuchus vertebrae in left lateral view a-b, cervical vertebrae (b is the holotype); c, Dorsal vertebra; d-e, caudal vertebrae.
Laevisuchus was around 2 metres in length, which makes it the smallest known theropod known from Lameta Formation as of now. Even though the only known fossils of it are just vertebrae, it can still be distinguished from other of its relatives on the basis of postzygapophyses present on the cervical vertebra and the shorter proportions of the dorsal one. Furthermore, the presence of deeper incisions within the spine post facet joints/spinopostzygapophyseal and the more broder neural arch on the dorsal vertebra makes it more distinguishable from other noasaurids. It is possible that the vertebrae attributed to the Jubbulpuria might be of the same Laevisuchus individual on the basis of similarities of these two taxa's caudal vertebrae.
Discovery and Naming[]
The fossils of Laevisuchus were discovered by Matley in 1919 during his expedition in Jabalpur, India. He described it as possible coelurosaurian. In 1933 Huene and Matley described it as Laevisuchus indicus, where the genus name "Laevi" is the Latin word for light, "suchus" is the greek word for ancient egyptian god, Soukhos and the species name "indicus" is after the country of India, they also described it as a coelurosaurian theropod. In 2004, many researchs have reclassifed it as a noasaurid similar to Masiakasaurus, Mohabey and his team in 2024 have also reclassifed it as a noasaurid but more similar to Deltadromeus than to previously proposed noasaurines.
Classification[]
As of 2024, Laevisuchus is currently classified as a basal noasaurid, possibly similar to Deltadromeus.
Gallery[]
