Nicrosaurus

Nicrosaurus Temporal range: Late Triassic
Nicrosaurus skull, from Zittel, 1913
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Phytosauria
Family:	Phytosauridae
Subfamily:	Pseudopalatinae
Genus:	Nicrosaurus Fraas, 1866

Nicrosaurus is an extinct genus of phytosaur reptile. Although it looked and probably lived like a crocodile, it was not closely related to these creatures, instead being a good example of parallel evolution. The main difference between Nicrosaurus (and all other phytosaurs) and real crocodiles was the position of the nostrils - Nicrosaurus's nostrils were placed directly in front of the forehead, whereas in crocodiles, the nostrils are positioned on the end of the snout.

Skull

A recent phylogenetic analysis found that the genera Pseudopalatus, Mystriosuchus, Redondasaurus and Nicrosaurus were pseudopalatines.^[1]

References

1. ^ Hungerbühler A. 2002. The Late Triassic phytosaur Mystriosuchus westphali, with a revision of the genus. Palaeontology 45 (2): 377-418

Paleontology portal

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