Chasmatosuchus

rdf:langString Chasmatosuchus

rdf:langString Huene, 1940

rdf:langString Early Triassic,

rdf:langString Life restoration of Chasmatosuchus rossicus

rdf:langString *†Chasmatosuchus rossicus (Huene, 1940 ) *†Chasmatosuchus magnus (Ochev, 1979) *?†Chasmatosuchus vjushkovi (Ochev, 1961)

rdf:langString Species

rdf:langString

rdf:langString Gamosaurus (Ochev, 1979)

rdf:langString Gamosaurus lozovskii (Ochev, 1979)

rdf:langString Jaikosuchus (Sennikov, 1990)

rdf:langString Jaikosuchus magnus

rdf:langString Tsylmosuchus samarensis (Sennikov, 1990)

rdf:langString Chasmatosuchus

rdf:langString Chasmatosuchus was an archosauriform reptile from the early Triassic period of European Russia. One of the earliest described archosauriforms, it was over 2 m long and is thought to have behaved like a modern crocodile. Its mouth had two distinct features: the top of its jaw hooked downwards to aid in holding prey, and the upper palate was lined with a row of teeth—a primitive feature lost in later archosaurs. Chasmatosuchus was formerly assigned to Proterosuchidae, but a 2016 cladistic analysis by Martin Ezcurra couldn't confidently place the species of Chasmatosuchus within Proterosuchidae. Instead their position remains unresolved due to the fragmentary nature of the known material, however Chasmatosuchus is more likely to be intermediate between proterosuchids and erythrosuchids and possibly closely related to Sarmatosuchus otschevi and Cuyosuchus huenei. Ezcurra (2016) could only placed C. rossicus and C. magnus within Chasmatosuchus with certainty, while the third valid species"C." vjushkovi potentially does not belong to Chasmatosuchus and may represent a proterosuchid. Gamosaurus and Jaikosuchus are subjective junior synonyms of Chasmatosuchus. Chasmatosuchus parvus, based on an anterior cervical vertebra, was synonymized with Macrocnemus in 1995.