Baurusuchus is an extinct genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of baurusuchid

Baurusuchidae

Baurusuchidae is a Gondwanan family of mesoeucrocodylians that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It is a group of terrestrial hypercarnivorous crocodilians from South America and possibly Pakistan. Baurusuchidae has been defined as a clade containing the most recent common ancestor of Baurusuchus...

 mesoeucrocodylia

Mesoeucrocodylia

Mesoeucrocodylia is the name of the clade that includes Eusuchia and the paraphyletic group Mesosuchia. The group appeared during the Early Jurassic, and continues to the present day....

n from the Late Cretaceous

Late Cretaceous

The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...

 of Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It was a terrestrial predator and scavenger, about 3.5 to 4 meters long. Baurusuchus lived during the Turonian

Turonian

The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 93.5 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.3 ± 1 Ma...

 to Santonian

Santonian

The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 85.8 ± 0.7 mya and 83.5 ± 0.7 mya...

 stages (90-83.5 million years ago) of the Late Cretaceous Period, in Adamantina Formation

Adamantina Formation

The Adamantina Formation is a geological formation in Brazil whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It gets its name from the Brazilian Bauru Group

Bauru Group

The Bauru Group is a geological formation in Brazil whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. The Bauru Group was divided by Fernandes and Coimbra in four formations,namely Adamantina, Uberaba Araçatuba and...

 ("Bauru crocodile"). It was related to the earlier-named Cynodontosuchus rothi

Cynodontosuchus

Cynodontosuchus is an extinct genus of baurusuchid mesoeucrocodylian. Fossils have been found from Argentina of Late Cretaceous age from the Bajo de la Carpa Formation as well as the Pichi Picun Leufu Formation...

, which was smaller, with weaker dentition (Bonaparte, 1996). The three species are B. pachechoi (Price, 1945), B. salgadoensis (Carvalho et al., 2005) (named after General Salgado County in São Paulo, Brazil) and B. albertoi (Nascimento & Zaher, 2010) (named after Dr. Alberto Barbosa de Carvalho, Brazilian paleontologist). Its relatives include the similarly-sized Stratiotosuchus

Stratiotosuchus

Stratiotosuchus is an extinct genus of baurusuchid mesoeucrocodylian which existed in the Adamantina Formation, Brazil during the late Cretaceous period . It was first named by Campos, D.A., Suarez, J.M., Riff, D. and Kellner, A.W.A. in 2001 and the type species is Stratiotosuchus maxhechti...

from the Adamantina Formation

Adamantina Formation

The Adamantina Formation is a geological formation in Brazil whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation...

, and Pabweshi, from the Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

i Pab Formation

Pab Formation

The Pab Formation is a Mesozoic geologic formation in Balochistan, in western Pakistan. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.-Paleofauna:* Vitakridrinda* Pakisaurus* Balochisaurus* Brohisaurus...

.

Sources

• Price, Llewellyn I. 1945. A new reptile from the Cretaceous of Brazil. Notas Preliminares e Estudos - Divisao de Geologia e Mineralogia, Departamento Nacional da Produao Mineral 25.
• In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs: Early Mesozoic Tetrapods by Nicholas C. Fraser and Hans-Dieter Sues
• The Osteology of the Reptiles by Alfred Sherwood Romer