Alligator luicus

Alligator luicus
Temporal range:
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauria
Order: Crocodilia
Family: Alligatoridae
Genus: Alligator
Species:
A. luicus
Binomial name
Alligator luicus

Alligator luicus is an extinct species of alligator that lived in what is now Shandong, China during the Middle Miocene.[1]

History

A nearly complete alligator skull was discovered in the Shanwang Formation in 1984, and described as A. luicus in 1987 by Jinling Li and Baozhong Wang.[1]

Description

The skull appears to belong to a juvenile individual, as it resembles juveniles of the related Chinese alligator (A. sinensis).[1] However, the snout, which was measured at 50 mm (2.0 in) in length, is wider than it is long in A. luicus as opposed to what is seen in an A. sinensis individual of the same size.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Li, Jinling; Wang, Baozhong (1987). "A new species of Alligator from Shanwang, Shandong" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica (in Chinese and English). 25 (3): 199–207.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  2. ^ Massonne, Tobias; Vasilyan, Davit; Rabi, Márton; Böhme, Madelaine (5 November 2019). "A new alligatoroid from the Eocene of Vietnam highlights an extinct Asian clade independent from extant Alligator sinensis". PeerJ. 7: e7562. doi:10.7717/peerj.7562. eISSN 2167-8359. PMC 6839522. PMID 31720094. S2CID 207937765.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  • Data related to Alligator luicus at Wikispecies