Caiman australis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Caiman australis is an extinct species of caiman described in 1858 on the basis of a left maxilla that was collected from the Upper Miocene age Ituzaingó Formation of Entre Rios, Argentina.[1][2]
| Caiman australis Temporal range: Late Miocene, | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Archosauromorpha |
| Clade: | Archosauriformes |
| Order: | Crocodilia |
| Family: | Alligatoridae |
| Subfamily: | Caimaninae |
| Clade: | Jacarea |
| Genus: | Caiman |
| Species: | †C. australis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Caiman australis (Bravard, 1858) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The species name “australis” comes from the Greek root austral, which means “southern” after its discovery in South America.[1]
Discovery and taxonomy
Caiman australis was first described by French engineer Auguste Bravard, who had been hired by the Museo de la Confederación,[1] on the basis of a complete left maxilla that had been collected from Upper Miocene strata belonging to the Ituzaingó Formation along the banks of the Parana River in Entre Ríos Province, Argentina.[3][2]
Bravard named it Crocodilus australis in 1858, believing that it was a species of crocodile due to its elongated maxilla.[1] It was the first named “Mesopotamian” species and the only one known for 2 decades.[3][1] Bravard gave it a very brief description, but Hermann Burmeister and Cayetano Rovereto gave more detailed descriptions in 1883[4] and 1912 respectively.[5]
The species was placed in several genera by different authors, with Juan B. Ambrosetti placing it in Proalligator in 1887,[6] Florentino Ameghino placed it in Alligator in 1898,[7] until it was finally placed in Caiman in 2012.[3] Some additional fossils have been suggested to be from the species, but a lack of overlap prevents definitive assignment.[3]
