Dutuitosaurus

{{Short description|Extinct genus of temnospondyls}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = [[Late Triassic]], {{fossilrange|235.0|221.5}} | image = Dutuitosaurus ouazzoui.JPG | image_upright = 1.15 | image_caption = Lower side of two ''D. ouazzoui''. | image2 = Dutuitosaurus ouazzoui skull.JPG | image2_upright = 1.15 | image2_caption = Skull of ''D. ouazzoui'' | taxon = Dutuitosaurus | authority = Hunt, 1993 | type_species = †'''''Dutuitosaurus ouazzoui''''' | type_species_authority = Dutuit, 1976 | synonyms = *''[[Metoposaurus]] ouazzoui'' <small>Dutuit, 1976</small> }}

'''''Dutuitosaurus''''' is a [[genus]] of [[Metoposauridae|metoposaurids]], a group of [[temnospondyl]]s that lived during the [[Late Triassic]] period. ''Dutuitosaurus'' was discovered in the early 1960s in Morocco and is known from the lower t5 units of the [[Timezgadiouine Formation]] exposures in the [[Argana Basin]] of the [[High Atlas|High]] [[Atlas Mountains]] and was first described in 1976 by French paleontologist Jean-Michel Dutuit.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dutuit|first=Jean-Michel|date=1976|title=Introduction à l'étude paléontologique du Trias continental marocain. Description des premiers stegocephales recueillis dans le couloir d'Argana (Atlas occidental)|journal=Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Série C|volume=36|pages=1–253}}</ref> Material of ''Dutuitosaurus'' is currently held in the [[National Museum of Natural History (France)|Muséum national d'histoire naturelle]] (MNHN) in Paris, France.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/collections/ensembles-collections/paleontologie/reptiles-amphibiens-oiseaux-fossiles/dutuitosaurus|title=Museum national d'histoire naturelle paleontology collections - Dutuitosaurus|date=2019-04-21|website=Museum national d'histoire naturelle}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://science.mnhn.fr/institution/mnhn/list?class=Amphibia&genus=Dutuitosaurus|title=MNHN collections database - Dutuitosaurus|date=2019-04-21|website=Museum national d'histoire naturelle}}</ref> It was originally placed within ''[[Metoposaurus]]'' as ''M. ouazzoui'' but was subsequently placed in its own genus, ''Dutuitosaurus'', by Hunt (1993), who identified a number of differences between ''Metoposaurus'' (classically a European genus) and the Moroccan metoposaurids.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Aspects of Mesozoic Geology and Paleontology of the Colorado Plateau|last=Hunt|first=Adrian|publisher=Museum of Northern Arizona|year=1993|editor-last=Morales|editor-first=Michael|location=Flagstaff|pages=67–97|chapter=A revision of the Metoposauridae (Amphibia: Temnospondyli) and description of a new genus from western North America}}</ref> Features that differentiate ''Dutuitosaurus'' from other metoposaurids include relative elongate intercentra and a maxilla that enters the orbit.<ref name=":0" />

Although many metoposaurids are known from so-called mass death assemblages that preserve large skeletal accumulations, the deposits in which ''Dutuitosaurus'' was found are relatively unique in preserving several completely articulated skeletons (over 70 individuals are present). This is interpreted to represent a relatively in situ preservation, possibly by the drying up of a pond as was classically proposed by Romer (1939),<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Romer|first=Alfred S.|date=1939|title=An amphibian graveyard|journal=The Scientific Monthly|volume=49|pages=337–339}}</ref> rather than transport of large amounts of remains into another area that would have become progressively disarticulated, as is probably the case with other metoposaurid mass death assemblages.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lucas|first=Spencer G.|last2=Rinehart|first2=Larry F.|last3=Krainer|first3=Karl|last4=Spielmann|first4=Justin A.|last5=Heckert|first5=Andrew B.|date=2010|title=Taphonomy of the Lamy amphibian quarry: A Late Triassic bonebed in New Mexico, U.S.A.|journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology|language=en|volume=298|issue=3–4|pages=388–398|doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.10.025|url=http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/f/Heckert_Andrew_2010_Taphonomt_Lamy_Quarry_orig.pdf}}</ref> Because most other metoposaurids are only known from a collection of dissociated skeletal elements, ''Dutuitosaurus'' is frequently taken as the guide for inferring skeletal proportions and precise positions of different elements in metoposaurids.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sulej|first=Tomasz|date=2007|title=Osteology, variability, and evolution of Metoposaurus, a temnospondyl from the Late Triassic of Poland|journal=Palaeontologia Polonica|volume=64|pages=29–139}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Metoposauridae]] [[Category:Triassic temnospondyls of Africa]] [[Category:Fossil taxa described in 1993]] [[Category:Late Triassic amphibians]] [[Category:Late Triassic animals of Africa]] [[Category:Triassic Morocco]] [[Category:Monotypic prehistoric amphibian genera]]