A new cranium of Crocodylus anthropophagus from Olduvai Gorge, northern Tanzania
Azzarà, Beatrice (Università degli Studi di Perugia. Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia)
Boschian, Giovanni (University of Johannesburg. Palaeo-Research Institute)
Brochu, Christopher A. (University of Iowa. Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences)
Delfino, Massimo (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Iurino, Dawid A. (Sapienza Università di Roma. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra)
Kimambo, Jackson S. (University of Witwatersrand. Evolutionary Studies Institute (South Africa))
Manzi, Giorgio (Sapienza Università di Roma. Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale)
Masao, Fidelis T. (University of Dar es Salaam. Department of Archaeology & Heritage (Tanzania))
Menconero, Sofia (Sapienza Università di Roma. Dipartimento di Storia, Disegno e Restauro dell'Architettura)
Njau, Jackson K. (Indiana University. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences)
Cherin, Marco (Università degli Studi di Perugia. Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia)

Data:	2021
Resum:	Olduvai Gorge (northern Tanzania) is one of the best known and most iconic palaeontological and archaeological sites in the world. In more than a century of research it has yielded an impressive record of fossils and stone tools which stands as a compendium of human evolution in the context of environmental changes of East Africa in the last 2 Ma. Recent field work in the DK site at Olduvai lead to the retrieval of a partial crocodile cranium nicknamed Black Sun because it was discovered during an annular solar eclipse. The specimen is here described and compared with extinct and extant African crocodylids. The new cranium can be referred to Crocodylus anthropophagus, a Pleistocene species hitherto found only in Olduvai Gorge. Thanks to the good preservation of the skull table, its morphology is here characterised for the first time. Black Sun represents to date the earliest (ca. 1. 9-1. 85 Ma) and the most informative cranium of C. anthropophagus in the fossil record. Our phylogenetic analysis supports a strict relationship between C. anthropophagus and Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni, a large species from the Plio-Pleistocene of the Turkana Basin (Kenya). These two sister taxa share a combination of characters which places them at the base of Crocodylus, providing an intriguing element to the debate on the African or extra-African origin of this genus.
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Africa ; Crocodile ; Crocodylidae ; Early Pleistocene ; Olduvai
Publicat a:	Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, Vol. 127, Issue 2 (July 2021) , p. 275-295, ISSN 2039-4942

DOI: 10.13130/2039-4942/15771

22 p, 10.3 MB

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Documents de recerca > Documents dels grups de recerca de la UAB > Centres i grups de recerca (producció científica) > Ciències > Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)
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