Pholidosauridae Zittel and Eastman 1902

Bajor, Daniel, Alarcón Muñoz, Jhonatan, Lizama Catalán, Álvaro & Rubilar Rogers, David, 2022, An Isolated Mesoeucrocodylian Tooth Crown From The Lower Cretaceous Cerro La Isla Pterosaur Site In The Atacama Region, Northern Chile, Boletín del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Chile 71 (2), pp. 5-22 : 12

Pholidosauridae Zittel and Eastman 1902

Pholidosaurids are a clade of semi-aquatic neosuchians, which lived in the Middle Jurassic-Upper Cretaceous interval (Hua et al. 2007; Fortier et al. 2011). The group is known from Europe, Africa, Asia and North- and South America ( Fortier et al. 2011; Martin et al. 2013). Though most of them have been discovered in freshwater paleo-environments, some representatives were marine forms (Hua et al. 2007). Although their dentition is generally poorly preserved and described only superficially, the tooth crowns of some species are quite similar to SGO.PV.1160. Most notably, those of the Lower Cretaceous representatives of the genus Pholidosaurus von Meyer 1841 , known from several European localities, have been described as slender, conical, slightly recurved, bearing enamel ornamentation formed by apicobasal ridges and either lacking carinae or possessing such weakly developed ones that they are difficult to differentiate from the rest of the ridges ( Andrews 1913; Martin et al. 2016). Oceanosuchus boecensis (Hua et al. 2007) from the lower Cenomanian of western France and Chalawan thailandicus (Buffetaut and Ingavat 1980) from the Jurassic of northeastern Thailand are other pholidosaurids whose tooth crowns also bear apicobasal enamel ridges (Buffetaut and Ingavat 1980, 1984; Hua et al. 2007). Given the presence of these neosuchians in the Lower Cretaceous of South America – Meridiosaurus vallisparadisi from Uruguay ( Fortier et al. 2011) and Sarcosuchus hartti from Brazil (Buffetaut and Taquet 1977; Souza et al. 2019) – and the similarities in dental morphology with some of their representatives, it is possible that SGO.PV.1160 belongs to a hitherto unknown freshwater pholidosaurid that inhabited northern Chile. Admittedly, this tooth is slenderer than pholidosaurid teeth in general, therefore its affinity with this group is tentative. However, it may be a replacement tooth or belong to a juvenile specimen.