Diandongosuchus palate

Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis was originally (Li et al. 2012) nested with Qianosuchus and the poposaurids, but it shares very few traits with these taxa as blogged here. This middle Middle Triassic, croc-mimic was derived from a croc-like specimen of YounginaBPI 2871 and a sister to Diandongosuchus gave rise to the parasuchians, Paleorhinus and Parasuchus. Proterochampsa was a sister and Diandongosuchus is not far from long-legged Chanaresuchus and Doswellia + Choristodera.

We looked at Diandongosuchus earlier here and in five other posts.

The palate is virtually invisible (Fig. 1), seen only through the naris, antorbital fenestra, orbit and a smidgeon between the jaws on the underside. The basisphenoid is not visible, probably hidden beneath a mandible. But the cultriform process is visible. So, with available data, here is the palate of Diandongosuchus reconstructed in a step-by-step process using the infamous DGS (digital graphic segregation), which I submit, still has value as shown below.

Figure 1. Using DGS to tease out the palate elements of Diandongosuchus. Color tracings enable the important elements of the skull to be layered upon one another to see where things match up and where they don't. A sliver here might be connected to another sliver there. I was surprised to see how narrow the skull was, even before crushing.

Figure 1. Using DGS to tease out the palate elements of Diandongosuchus. Color tracings enable the important elements of the skull to be layered upon one another to see where things match up and where they don’t. A sliver here might be connected to another sliver there. I was surprised to see how narrow the skull was, even before crushing.

Diandongosuchus is just another big, nasty, robust younginid, but developing along separate lines than Proterosuchus and Garjainia, which have a similar heritage. Converging with Gargainia, the skull of Diandongosuchus was taller than wide, which is different than all of its closest sisters.

The deep cheeks in this taxon are further developed in parasuchians, which raised the orbit to the top of the skull. The vomers are very long and I suspect that the maxillary palatal plates supported it. You can see rather plainly in Chanaresuchus, in which the internal nare are divided into fore and aft openings by the advancing maxilla. In parasuchia the vomer is very short because the premaxilla is very long.

References
Li C, Wu X-C, Zhao L-J, Sato T and Wang LT 2012. A new archosaur (Diapsida, Archosauriformes) from the marine Triassic of China, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 32:5, 1064-1081.

wiki/Diandongosuchus

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