Mesorhinosuchus

{{Short description|Extinct genus of reptiles}} {{Automatic taxobox | taxon = Mesorhinosuchus | fossil_range = [[Early Triassic]], {{Fossil range|Olenekian}} | authority = [[Oskar Kuhn|Kuhn]], [[1961 in paleontology|1961]] | type_species = {{extinct}}'''''[[Mesorhinus]] fraasi''''' | type_species_authority = [[Otto Jaekel|Jaekel]], [[1910 in paleontology|1910]] | synonyms = *''Mesorhinosaurus fraasi'' (Jaekel, 1910) *''[[Mesosuchus]] fraasi'' (Jaekel, 1910) *''[[Paleorhinus]] fraasi'' (Jaekel, 1910) *''[[Parasuchus]] fraasi'' (Jaekel, 1910) }}

'''''Mesorhinosuchus''''' ("middle nose crocodile") is an [[extinct]] [[genus]] of [[basal (phylogenetics)|basal]] [[phytosaur]] possibly known from the [[Early Triassic]] (early [[Olenekian]] stage) of [[Saxony-Anhalt]], central-eastern [[Germany]]. It was first named by [[Otto Jaekel]] in [[1910 in paleontology|1910]] and the [[type species]] is '''''Mesorhinus fraasi'''''.<ref name=Jaekel1910>Jaekel, O. (1910). Ueber einen neuen Belodonten aus dem Buntsandstein von Bernburg. ''Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin'', '''5''':197-229.</ref> The generic name ''Mesorhinus'' was preoccupied by ''[[Mesorhinus]] piramydatus'', a [[macraucheniid]] [[mammal]], which is now considered to be a junior synonym of ''[[Oxyodontherium]]''. Thus, an alternative generic name, ''Mesorhinosuchus'', was proposed by [[Oskar Kuhn]] in [[1961 in paleontology|1961]].<ref name=Mesorhinosuchus>Kuhn, O. (1961). Die Familien der rezenten und fossilen Amphibien und Reptilien. ''Verlaghus Meisenbach KG, Bamberg'', 1-79.</ref> The genus is occasionally misspelled as ''Mesorhinosaurus'', while Stocker and Butler's study in 2013 misspelled its original generic name as ''[[Mesosuchus]]''.<ref name=StockerButler13>{{Cite journal | last1 = Stocker | first1 = M. R. | last2 = Butler | first2 = R. J. | title = Phytosauria | doi = 10.1144/SP379.5 | journal = Geological Society, London, Special Publications | year = 2013 | volume = 379 | issue = 1 | pages = 91–117 | bibcode = 2013GSLSP.379...91S | s2cid = 219192243 }}</ref>

Jaekel originally described the [[taxon]] on the basis of a single specimen he found in the collections of the [[University of Göttingen]], with a label that identified it as a [[temnospondyl]] from the [[Lower Buntsandstein]] (Early Triassic) of Saxony-Anhalt.<ref name=Jaekel1910/> The [[holotype]], an unnumbered GZG partial [[skull]] with the [[Anatomical terms of location|anterior]] tip missing, was destroyed during [[World War II]]. According to Stocker and Butler, based on the photograph in the original description, the holotype skull was undoubtedly phytosaurian, making it putatively the stratigraphically-lowest phytosaur known. Jaekel found a potential match of the sediment in which the skull was preserved to the Wipperbrücke, Parforcehaus locality, a horizon at the very base of the [[Middle Buntsandstein]] near [[Bernburg]]. This would make the specimen early [[Olenekian]] (Smithian) in age.<ref name=StockerButler13/> However, because the holotype was destroyed with no surviving casts, and its provenance cannot be confirmed without new specimens, it have been largely ignored by recent authors, or assumed that its reported stratigraphic occurrence was incorrect.<ref name=HuntLucas91>Hunt, A. P., and Lucas, S. G. (1991). [https://www.scribd.com/doc/4652272/The-Paleorhinus-biochron-and-the-correlation-of-the-nonmarine-Upper-Triassic-of-Pangaea The ''Paleorhinus'' biochron and the correlation of the non-marine Upper Triassic of Pangaea]. ''Palaeontology'' '''34'''(2):487-501.</ref> Various authors referred ''M. fraasi'' to as ''[[Paleorhinus]] fraasi'' or ''[[Parasuchus]] fraasi'', while a more recent review of the [[Phytosauria]] by Stocker and Butler refrained from doing so, assigning it to [[Phytosauria]] ''[[incertae sedis]]''.<ref name=StockerButler13/>

==References== {{Reflist}} {{Portal|Paleontology}}

[[Category:Phytosauria]] [[Category:Prehistoric reptile genera]] [[Category:Olenekian genera]] [[Category:Early Triassic reptiles of Europe]] [[Category:Triassic Germany]] [[Category:Fossils of Germany]] [[Category:Fossil taxa described in 1961]]