Dongnanosuchus

Dongnanosuchus
Temporal range: Eocene
Reconstruction of the skull
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauria
Order: Crocodilia
Superfamily: Alligatoroidea
Clade: Globidonta
Clade: Orientalosuchina
Genus: Dongnanosuchus
Shan et al. 2021
Species:
D. hsui
Binomial name
Dongnanosuchus hsui
Shan et al. 2021

Dongnanosuchus is an extinct monotypic genus of orientalosuchin crocodilian known from the middle to late Eocene Youganwo Formation of China. Like other members of Orientalosuchina, Dongnanosuchus was a comparably small-bodied animal with a short, rounded snout that shares characteristics with both early alligatoroids and crocodylids, rendering the precise placement of the clade uncertain. It contains a single species, Dongnanosuchus hsui, which lived during the latter part of the Eocene in what is now the Maoming Basin of China, which at the time featured subtropical forests and a prominent lake that would be the foundation of the local oil shale. This environment was shared by the tomistomine Maomingosuchus and similar cohabitation between Maomingosuchus and orientalosuchins is known from similar sites across East Asia.