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Brachychampsa

 

 
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Brachychampsa
 
 
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Brachychampsa is an extinct genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of alligatorine
Alligatorinae

Alligatorinae are one of two subfamilies of the family Alligatoridae....
. Specimens have been found from New Mexico
New Mexico

New Mexico is a U. S. State located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. Inhabited by Native Americans in the United States populations for many centuries, it has also has been part of the Spanish Empire viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S....
, Colorado
Colorado

The State of Colorado is a U.S. state located in the Mountain States of the United States of America. Colorado may also be considered to be a part of the Western United States and Southwestern United States regions of the United States....
, Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
, Montana
Montana

Montana is a U.S. state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains....
, North
North Dakota

North Dakota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States and Western United States regions of the United States of America. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the US; it is the 48th most populous, with just over 640,000 residents as of 2006....
 and South Dakota
South Dakota

South Dakota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States of the United States of America. It is named after the Lakota people and Sioux Sioux Native Americans in the United States tribes....
, New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
, and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie provinces in Canada, which has an area of 588,276.09 square kilometres and a population of 1,015,895 , mostly living in the southern half of the province....
. One specimen has been found from the Darbasa Formation of Kazakstan, although the species status is indeterminant for the fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
. The genus first appeared during the late Campanian
Campanian

The Campanian is a faunal stage on the geologic time scale occurring from 83.5 ? 0.7 annum to 70.6 ? 0.6 Ma .It is the middle stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch ....
 stage of the Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous

Late Cretaceous refers to the second half of the Cretaceous Period , named after the famous white chalk cliffs of southern England, which date from this time....
 (Judithian North American stage) and went extinct during the early Danian
Danian

The Danian is the first faunal stage of the Paleocene epoch , making up the Early Paleocene sub-epoch. The beginning of the stage is defined by the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event 65.5 ? 0.3 annum ....
 stage of the Paleocene
Paleocene

The Paleocene or Palaeocene, "early dawn of the recent" is a geologic epoch that lasted from 65.5 ? 0.3 Mega-annum to 55.8 ? 0.2 Ma . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic era ....
 (Puercan
Puercan

The Puercan North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology , typically set from 65,000,000 to 63,300,000 years Before Present....
 North American stage), a few million years after the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event.






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Encyclopedia


Brachychampsa is an extinct genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of alligatorine
Alligatorinae

Alligatorinae are one of two subfamilies of the family Alligatoridae....
. Specimens have been found from New Mexico
New Mexico

New Mexico is a U. S. State located in the Southwestern United States of the United States. Inhabited by Native Americans in the United States populations for many centuries, it has also has been part of the Spanish Empire viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S....
, Colorado
Colorado

The State of Colorado is a U.S. state located in the Mountain States of the United States of America. Colorado may also be considered to be a part of the Western United States and Southwestern United States regions of the United States....
, Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
, Montana
Montana

Montana is a U.S. state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains....
, North
North Dakota

North Dakota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States and Western United States regions of the United States of America. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the US; it is the 48th most populous, with just over 640,000 residents as of 2006....
 and South Dakota
South Dakota

South Dakota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States of the United States of America. It is named after the Lakota people and Sioux Sioux Native Americans in the United States tribes....
, New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
, and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie provinces in Canada, which has an area of 588,276.09 square kilometres and a population of 1,015,895 , mostly living in the southern half of the province....
. One specimen has been found from the Darbasa Formation of Kazakstan, although the species status is indeterminant for the fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
. The genus first appeared during the late Campanian
Campanian

The Campanian is a faunal stage on the geologic time scale occurring from 83.5 ? 0.7 annum to 70.6 ? 0.6 Ma .It is the middle stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch ....
 stage of the Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous

Late Cretaceous refers to the second half of the Cretaceous Period , named after the famous white chalk cliffs of southern England, which date from this time....
 (Judithian North American stage) and went extinct during the early Danian
Danian

The Danian is the first faunal stage of the Paleocene epoch , making up the Early Paleocene sub-epoch. The beginning of the stage is defined by the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event 65.5 ? 0.3 annum ....
 stage of the Paleocene
Paleocene

The Paleocene or Palaeocene, "early dawn of the recent" is a geologic epoch that lasted from 65.5 ? 0.3 Mega-annum to 55.8 ? 0.2 Ma . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic era ....
 (Puercan
Puercan

The Puercan North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology , typically set from 65,000,000 to 63,300,000 years Before Present....
 North American stage), a few million years after the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event. Brachychampsa is distinguished by an enlarged fourth maxillary tooth
Premolar

The premolar teeth or bicuspids are transitional teeth located between the Canine_tooth and Molar_ teeth. In humans, there are two premolars per quadrant, making eight premolars total in the mouth....
 in the upper jaw.

Brachychampsas position within the superfamily Alligatoroidea
Alligatoroidea

'Alligatoroidea' is a Taxonomic rank of crocodilians that evolved in the Late Cretaceous Geologic time scale#Terminology. Cladistics, it is defined as Alligator mississippiensis and all crocodylians more closely related to A....
 has undergone many revisions since it was first named. Originally it was placed within the family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 Alligatoridae
Alligatoridae

Alligators and caimans are archosaurs, species of crocodilians and form the family Alligatoridae ....
, and was later refined to the subfamily Alligatorinae in 1964, only to be placed outside both Alligatorinae and Alligatoridae (but still within Alligatoroidea) in 1994. Recently it has been placed back once again into the subfamily Alligatorinae.

Species


The type species
Type species

In taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus . It is an individual specimen that fixes the name of a genus . Two different definitions are used interchangeably, in a general term and a botanical term....
 of Brachychampsa is B. montana, first discovered from the Hell Creek Formation
Hell Creek Formation

The Hell Creek Formation is an intensely-studied division of Upper Cretaceous to lower Paleocene rocks in North America, named for exposures studied along Hell Creek, near Jordan, Montana....
 of Montana and desribed by Charles W. Gilmore
Charles W. Gilmore

'Charles Whitney Gilmore' was an United States Palaeontology, who named dinosaurs in North America and Mongolia, including the Cretaceous sauropod Alamosaurus, Alectrosaurus, Archaeornithomimus, Bactrosaurus, Brachyceratops, Chirostenotes, Mongolosaurus, Parrosaurus, Pinacosaurus, Styracosaurus and Th...
 in a paper in 1911. In that same paper, Gilmore recombined Bottosaurus perrugosus
Bottosaurus

Bottosuchus is an extinct genus of crocodile. Specimens have been found from New Jersey, North Carolina and South Carolina, and Colorado. It had destinctively thick Osteoderm that lacked the pitting of most other crocodylians....
 as a new species of Brachychampsa, called B. perrugosus. The holotype
Holotype

A holotype is one of several possible biological types. A type is what fixes a name to a taxon. A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described....
 specimen of B. perrugosus went missing as the paper was being written, but it was later rediscovered and soon afterward designated as a nomen dubium
Nomen dubium

In ICZN, a nomen dubium is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Note that in the ICBN and ICNB the phrase "nomen dubium" has no status....
 due to a lack of diagnostic features that distinguish it from other alligatorids discovered since the paper was published. Another species from the Allison Member of the Menefee Formation of the San Juan Basin
San Juan Basin

The San Juan Basin is a drainage basin and geologic structural basin in the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States United States; its main portion covers around 4,600 square miles, encompassing much of northwestern New Mexico, northeastern Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Utah....
, B. sealeyi, was discovered in 1996, but was later proven to be synonymous
Synonym (taxonomy)

In scientific nomenclature, synonyms are different scientific names used for a single taxon. Usage and terminology are different for zoology and botany....
 with B. montana.

External links

  • in the Paleobiology Database
    Paleobiology Database

    The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms that has been compiled by an international group of professional paleontologists working over the web....