#kuttysuchus

Well, well well, look who comes crawling out of the woodwork again after having failed to live up to any promise I made earlier last year.

In my defense, tho my love for crocs continue, I suffered several hits to my motivation not to mention plenty of work both at my job and private life including a complete revision of the clade Itasuchidae on Wikipedia (currently 8 out of 13 pages in).

But I'm taking a brief moment to try and bring back at least a summary of all the new taxa we got last year.

Taihangosuchus Our chronologically oldest animal on this little list is Taihangosuchus from the Anisian (Middle Triassic ) Ermaying Formation. Fittingly this little is also part of one of the most ancient pseudosuchian linages, the gracilisuchids, small, erect-limbed quadrupeds, which it feels have been getting a lot more attention as of late. Two specimens are known, one smaller preserving the head and neck, one larger that exclusively preserves postcrania. The larger furthermore shows at least parts of the animals last meal in the form of several osteoderms in the gut, indicating that this animal was not just predatory but seemingly fed on other archosaurs. Which one is unclear. Shansisuchus had no osteoderms, Halazhaisuchus is from the lower parts of the formation, Fenhosuchus is a candidate, as most osteoderms from Ermaying have historically been referred to it but its just as possible that the victim was a smaller individual of Taihangosuchus.

Tainrakuasuchus Poposauroids keep on winning as of late, at least as far as basal forms are concerned. Tainrakuasuchus bellator (roughly meaning "pointed tooth warrior crocodile") may be one of the most basal poposauroids, having been recovered as a close relative of Mandasuchus and more derived than either Benggwigwishingasuchus or Mambawakale. At a size of roughly 2.4 meters (give or take) and specimens estimated at 3 meters it would have been a sizable predator of the Dinodontosaurus AZ, which is well known for an already diverse croc fauna. Size alone demands it to fill a different nische from behemoths like Prestosuchus, but also as a poposauroid the neck vertebrae weren't built to deal with the same immense stresses anyways, so one way or another different prey was required.

Telkaralura From a poposauroid back to another gracilisuchid, this time from the Carnian of South America. Telkaralura is one of those taxa that have a surprisingly long history for something only really described recently. It was first discovered by famed paleontologist José F. Bonaparte in 1980 in the same rock layers as Gracilisuchus and both were for a time regarded to be early dinosaurs. It was briefly regarded as a juvenile Luperosuchus in 2009, split off in 2017 and finally given a name in 2025.

Telkaralura is notable for being the largest gracilisuchid known today, some 20 to 25% larger than the next largest members of the group including the recently named Parvosuchus, twice the size of Gracilisuchus and five times the size of Maehary (previously thought to be basal to pterosaurs, fun fact). But even that wasn't enough to make it top predator, which is an honor that goes to the proterochampsid Gualosuchus.

Olkasuchus AN AETOSAUR KNOWN FROM MORE THAN JUST A HANDFULL OF ISOLATED OSTEODERMS?! Yes, Olkasuchus was a pleasent surprise, which makes me all the more disappointed in myself that I have yet to find the time to write about it on wikipedia. So this will need to suffice for the time being (I mean sooner or later I gotta give that whole clade an overhaul anyways, no?) Olkasuchus is known from the Late Triassic (Norian) Los Colorados Formation, famous for its enormous "prosauropods" and titanic rauisuchian Fasolasuchus. This basal desmatosuchine is however not nearly as big, for reference the scalebar in the image below is 20 centimeters.

Pattisaura Early pseudosuchians sure loved the small and gracile morphotype, but we're not dealing with a gracilisuchid this time. Pattisaura is an early crocodylomorph, part of the grade frequently referred to as "sphenosuchians".

As an inhabitant of the Cooper Canyon Formation Pattisaura lived around many other famous stem-crocs including Postosuchus, Shuvosaurus and Desmatosuchus. And with a fauna like that you can nicely see just how diverse early pseudosuchians were, covering large predators, gracile bipeds, armored quadrupeds and of course smaller, almost dog-like forms like Pattisaura.

Kuttysuchus Now that's more like what I'm used to with aetosaurs: OSTEODERMS AND NOTHING ELSE. Perhaps the most shocking developement of having had to deal with these over the past few years is that I'm getting scarily comfortable with how these isolated bony plates are described, but I won't make you suffer through that.

So I'll keep this one at the key points. Kuttysuchus is a new typothoracine from the Norian to Rhaetian of India. It coexisted with mystriosuchine phytosaurs, early sauropodomorphs and two other aetosaurs, an as of yet unnamed desmatosuchine and Venkatasuchus, which you might remember (or not, I won't blame you). Excuse me for being a little glib, but with so many crocs its hard to really sell something thats known from a handfull of bony plates without giving info thats super generalized to the group as a whole.

And with that we finish the Triassic and actually jump straight to the Cretaceous. Yup, no Jurassic taxa for you.

Paarthurnax Yes, like the dragon from Skyrim. While this 4 meter animal from the middle Cretaceous appears similar to modern crocodiles, its actually part of the older family Goniopholididae, and one that actually proves to be quite informative at that.

The thing with Goniopholidids is that they were most successfull during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, filling the crocodilian nische throughout North America, Europe and Asia prior to Eusuchians making it big. But we knew even before 2025 that goniopholidids didn't go out without a fight and in fact made it until the Maastrichtian in the form of Denazinosuchus. This of course left a massive gap in time we didn't quite know how to fill. But the discovery of Paarthurnax allowed Platt and co to create a neat line from early Cretaceous European goniopholidids like Anteophthalmosuchus all the way to Denazinosuchus in America, briding the gap with Paarthurnax, Paluxysuchus and Deltasuchus. Will this hypothesis hold? Only time will tell.

Sissokosuchus Remember me mentioning itasuchids at the beginning? Well in 2025 we got two of those. The first I want to talk about is the one that I am still relatively satisfied with as far as the Wikipedia page goes.

Sissokosuchus maliensis (Famory Sissoko's crocodile from Mali) is known from multiple specimens, none of which especially complete sadly, found within the poorly defined Continental intercalaire of Mali, which date to the Aptian and Albian. At that point in time Mali cotained part of what was once an enormous ancient river system, the  Paleo-Tegama, perfect for anything that loved freshwater.

This included Sissokosuchus, which, despite looking suspiciously like a normal crocodile, was actually part of an off-shoot of the otherwise famously terrestrial notosuchians. Itasuchids in general are quite a fascinating group in that regard, ranging from more robust types like Barreirosuchus to slender-snouted animals such as Stolokrosuchus. But more on that some other time.

Thikarisuchus Now for something entirely different, Thikarisuchus xenodens (strange-toothed sheath crocodile). Small, terrestrial, long and slender limbs and actually closer to modern crocodiles than either of our previous two newcommers.

This adorable little guy from the Cenomanian Blackleaf Formation is a wannchampsid, close kin to the similarily gracile and terrestrial atoposaurids. What makes Thikarisuchus interesting is the fact that it had three different tooth types (hence the name), ranging from pointed and conical to mediolaterally flat and very low-crowned. This likely reflects a broad diet that could have included insects, small animals and even plants. The front teeth would be used to grab food items, the cheek teeth served to slice.

Thilastikosuchus Staying with the nimble, terrestrial genre of crocodylomorphs for a bit takes us across the sea into South America to meet Thilastikosuchus scutorectangularis (Mammal crocodile with rectangular osteoderms), a notosuchian of the family Candidodontidae.

Candidodontids are perhaps the most obscure family of notosuchian to an outsider, perhaps even more obscure than itasuchids, and similarily its partially because we're still only just beginning to understand them (fun fact, Malawisuchus, another candidodontid, was actually among the first two taxa assigned to Itasuchidae alongside Itasuchus itself, tho the family has changed drastically since then).

Like Thikarisuchus, Thilastikosuchus is noted for its teeth. Two types of teeth are known from this animal, subconical incisors in the front of the jaw and molariform teeth in the back, but no canines, despite the fact that they are present in other notosuchians incleading some fellow candidodontids. But while the posterior teeth of Thikarisuchus are also different, Thilastikosuchus goes a step beyond, its teeth being and well mammal-like.

Ibirasuchus Oh boy....well, this is our second itasuchid of 2025 and its beyond the shadow of a doubt worse than Sissokosuchus. I'll be honest I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on it. It was named in a broader paper describing various fossils and the only things known of Ibirasuchus are admittedly most of a parietal and supraoccipital and a tiny corner of a squamosal... yeah its not even half a skull table. The paper does propose a possible length of four meters, but problematically itasuchid postcrania are barely described and my current plans are to start reconstructing them once I've got the writing down. Will this animals Wikipedia page get another overhaul beyond my initial script, yes, will it be significantly better, well, theres only so much I can work with.

Wadisuchus Moving on to something a lot more pleasent, we have Wadisuchus kassabi (Kassab's Valley Crocodile), known from two fairly complete skulls that were found in the sediments of the Campanian Quseir Formation.

The animal, which may have grown as long as 4 meters, is among the oldest known dyrosaurids, a group closely related to pholidosaurids like Sarcosuchus and that held out until the Eocene. Given its basal position its unsurprising that Wadisuchus displays a mix of derived dyrosaurid and more basal pholidosaurid features. For example pholidosaurids have a famously hooked snout tip, which is absent in dyrosaurids. Well in Wadisuchus we see a mix, with the first teeth strongly downturned and the rest positioned normally, which may be related to the way the lower jaw grew longer throughout this groups evolutionary history.

Kostensuchus A Kostensuchus, how excited I was when you dropped. And rightfully so, its not every day you get a 3 meter terrestrial behemoth of a notosuchian known from a complete skull and almost the entire vertebral collumn up to the hip. What makes this animal even more fascinating is the fact that tho superficially similar to baurusuchids, its actually a peirosaur.

The fact that there is a whole distinct clade of robust peirosaurids actually lead to an interesting hypothesis. Novas and colleagues speculate that South America may have been split into two distinct predator faunal zones. In the northern parts, i.e. Brazil's Bauru Group, the top predators were abelisaurs and baurusuchids, while the south their rolle may have been filled by megaraptorans and peirosaurids. Here's hoping we find more to support this idea because I for one love it.

Animation by PALEOGDY

Tewkensuchus Tewkensuchus in some aspects is not all that different from Kostensuchus. The "forehead crocodile", tho known from rather limited material, was likely a robust, terrestrial animal that stalked what is now Argentina during the earliest days of the Paleogene.

And that's where things get interesting. With an estimated weight of 300 kg this sebecoid is exceptionally large for its time, which has prompted researchers to question how that came to be. The two main explanations are as follows. 1. Sebecoids have been as large as this since before the meteor whiped out the dinosaurs and underwent a brief aquatic phase that allowed them to stay in this range without being annihilated as the purely terrestrial fauna was (a method employed by the ancestors of our modern crocs) 2. These guys were small prior to the impact and, somehow, got absolutely fucking jacked the second theropods were out of the picture.

A final note, despite being from almost southernmost South America, Tewkensuchus appears to have actually been more closely related to Eocene European sebecoids like Bergisuchus and Dentaneosuchus rather than the geographically closer proper sebecids. This whole paleogeography continues to be a headache let me tell you that.

Paleoart by Michael Tripoli

Pseudogavialis Pseudogavialis is a classic case of authors trying to make sense of something thats been an issue we've had for hundreds of years. In this case the fact that Oligocene to Miocene Pakistani gavialoids are a mess. Several species were coined in the 1800s and have repeatedly been lumped, split, lumped again. Courville and colleagues published an extensive paper on some of them, including "Gavialis" curvirostris. Their conclusion: the animal is clearly distinct and it was given the new name Pseudogavialis. It was probably close to todays Indian gharial, may have featured a similar soft tissue bulb on its snout and grew to a length of 6 to 7 meters.

Rhamphosuchus brevirostris Ok one could argue this ones a bit of a cheat because obviously Rhamphosuchus has been well established for over a hundred years and the species is similarily old. However, given that we weren't even sure brevirostris was legit and its now been redescribed and pretty firmly placed in the genus Rhamphosuchus I'll include it here.

The same paper I just mentioned in regards to Pseudogavialis also touched on "Gavialis" pachyrhynchus. Unlike Pseudogavialis it was not separated on a genus level, but instead sunk into Rhamphosuchus as you already know.

Now Rhamphosuchus pachyrhynchus is notably more robust than Pseudogavialis, but not quite as much as the still poorly known Rhamphosuchus crassidens. It had more of an overbite rather than the interlocking teeth seen in modern gharials and crocs, may have grown to 8 meters in length and we still don't really know how these guys related to other gavialoids really.

This whole paper did inspire me to give the Wikipedia page for Rhamphosuchus a complete overhaul tho and despite the scarcity of proper descriptions I'm actually still quite happy with it.

Piscogavialis laberintoensis Our third and final gavialoid for 2025 is yet another species of an established genus, this time all the way over in Peru. Piscogavialis laberintoensis is known from the Miocene Laberinto area of the Pisco Formation (keep an eye open for the upcoming formation piece by Joschua Knüppe). As in the type species, the snout of Piscogavialis laberintoensis is very long and narrow, but the transition between the snout and orbital region is a lot more abrupt and not as fluid. And of course as its relative, this species was a marine animal. Body length has been estimated to range from 5.4 to 6.2 meters.

Crocodylus sudani The geologically youngest new fossil crocodile of last year takes us to Sudan, hence its name, specifically to the 60.000 year old rocks found near the Atbara River, one of the tributaries of the Nile. Theres several fascinating things to mention for this species. Morphologically for example it combines both the presence of a pronounced boss before the eyes with upturned squamosal horns. Evolutionarily, despite being as young as it is, Crocodylus sudani is not closely related to todays Nile or Sacred crocodiles but may actually be part of the Paleoafrican Crocodylus species, which includes the enormous Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni. Perhaps one of the more out there claims by the authors is the idea that maybe, just maybe, this species is still out there.... Now granted, modern crocs are more diverse than we give them credit for and many a crypic species is still likely hidden out there, only distinguished by subtle features, differences in the genome and hidden by harsh and inaccessible environments. However as Salih and co. themselves admitt, its gonna require some substantial research into modern Sudanese crocodile populations to proof that this is more than just wishfull thinking.

Artwork again by Michael Tripoli

The year has just begun and already we got a bunch of pretty neat new studies on fossil pseudosuchians so I'll just briefly go over them and unless I forget or end up procrastinating/getting too busy I'll hopefully be able to keep this going throughout the rest of the year.

Just to give you a brief overview, the highlights of this month include: salt glands in gavialoids, crocodilian predation on azhdarchids, diversifications and extinctions in thalattosuchians and a new species of aetoaur from India. Lets begin.

Evidence for salt glands in gavialoids

Starting off with something relating to the dispersal of gavialoids, we got "Evaluation of the endocranial anatomy of the early Paleogene north African gavialoid crocodylian Argochampsa krebsi and evolutionary implications for adaptation to salinity tolerance in marine crocodyliforms" by Pliggersdorfer, Burke and Mannion.

The title already gives a lot away, but the point was that Argochampsa, from the early Paleocene Ouled Abdoun Basin in Morocco, was examined for evidence of salt tolerance. Why? Because the dispersal of gavialoids remains weird. Both modern forms aren't especially keen on saltwater and are only known to consistently occur in freshwater (tho we have a recent example of an indian gharial caught in a fishing net off the coast of India), yet we have plenty of extinct gavialoids that either indicate that the group must have crossed oceans (see any "gryposuchine") or straight up lived at sea (also see some "gryposuchines").

Now, one such example might also be Argochampsa. Both because the Ouled Abdoul Basin famously preserves coastal deposits and because, at least following some phylogenies, Argochampsa might be closely related to the gharials of South America and today (others say its not even a gavialoid but lets ignore that for now). So all things considered one might expect marine habits from Argochampsa, yet so far no such adaptations could be identified. Well, Pliggersdorfer and co. analyzed a thus-far undescribed skull and actually managed to find something. Small depressions on the inside of the skull are suspiciously similar to ones seen in the extinct, fully marine metriorhynchoids, depressions that in the latter have been interpreted as having been left by salt glands. There is also some further evidence through the morphology of the inner ear.

This conclusion further extends to a handfull of other taxa, including the dyrosaurid Rhabdognathus and the recently named gavialoid Sutekhsuchus, and lends itself to the hypothesis that salt glands may have been ancestral to gavialoids, something I personally find unsurprising given their proximity to crocodyloids and their dispersal across the world (really if anything alligatoroids seem like the odd one out).

Fun fact, yours truly is featured in the paper in the form of two silhouettes.

Left: Argochampsa, illustrated by Seismic Shrimp/JW Right: Piscogavialis, perhaps the most famous marine gavialoid, illustrated by Joschua Knüppe

The brain of Paralligator

Second on our neat little list, the neuroanatomy of Paralligator, studied through CT scans and 3D modeling and published on in "Neurocranial anatomy of Paralligator (Neosuchia: Paralligatoridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia". Given that I am not great with brain things, I'll keep this one short.

Now for those unfamiliar, Paralligator is part of a somewhat strange clade known as the Paralligatoridae, which contrary to their name are nowhere near real alligators (tho some do look deceptively similar). Instead, they are much more basal members of Eusuchia.

Measurements of the olfactory bulbs, responsible for the sense of smell, indicate that in Paralligator this sense was similarily developed to allodaposuchids and crocodilians, as is the inner ear who's anatomy suggests a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Paralligator does however differ in possessing a mesothemoid, a bony septum in the olfactory region that is also seen in dyrosaurids, baurusuchids and dinosaurs, but not modern crocodiles.

Borealosuchus remains from Colorado

Tho seemingly unexciting, this study, "First record of Borealosuchus sternbergii from thelower Paleocene Denver Formation (lower Danian),Colorado (Denver Basin)" actually helps us fill a neat little gap in our previous knowledge on croc survival across the Cretaceous-Paleocene extinction.

Simply put, though America's croc record across the KPG is rather remarkable, showing both many survivors and some incredible diversification after the impact, Colorado is kind of a blind spot, despite its potential importance. Perhaps one of the best examples of a survivor concerns the genus Borealosuchus, which is both geographically and stratigraphically widespread. To put things into perspective, this genus occured as far north as Canada and as far south as Texas, first appearing in the Late Cretaceous and dying out in the Eocene.

This paper now described several skulls from the Corall Bluff's locality of the Denver Formation, earliest Paleocene, that can be attributed to Borealosuchus sternbergii, definitively extending its range beyond KPG (granted, there are tentatively referred Paleocene occurences elsewhere), making it one of the largest suvivors of the mass extinction, with adults growing up to 2.3 meter in length. The specimens from Colorado are smaller, in the 1.5 to 1.7 meter range, but they are also regarded as immature individuals and are therefore also regarded as usefull in illustrating how the animals changed as they grew into adulthood.

This paper is especially well timed for those that follow @knuppitalism-with-ue 's Formation Stream series. As you might know, Corall Bluffs is to be drawn barely a week from now and this is a fantastic addition.

Left: Borealosuchus drawn by Atak_Draws Right: Distribution of Borealosuchus by Lessner, Petermann and Lyson 2025

Growth of a peirosaur

Our next paper for discussion is "Life history and growth dynamics of a peirosaurid crocodylomorph (Mesoeucrocodylia; Notosuchia) from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina inferred from its bone histology" by Tamara G. Navarro and colleagues. This study conducted the first histology of peirosaurid limb bones, specifically of an indetermined taxon clading together with Uberabasuchus.

As a brief refresher, peirosaurids are a branch of medium to large sized Notosuchians that I personally think can be aptly described as appearing somewhat like scaly dogs or pigs with often robust, wedge-shaped heads and heavily armored bodies.

The results show that the animal had reached sexual maturity, yet was not yet fully grown. What's also noted is the exact growth dynamics of this animal. This is to say, the studied peirosaurid had overall slow growth with cycles of no growth whatsoever and two periods of increased growth, tho once put against other notosuchians the study deems the growth rates to be better described as "moderate". Pepesuchus meanwhile, belonging to the closely related itasuchids, was a fast grower. Extending things beyond their shared clade shows a virtual mish-mash of dynamics, with Araripesuchus buitreraensis displaying slow growth rates (yet Araripesuchus wegeneri having faster rates than the peirosaur), Iberosuchus showing slow rates, and Notosuchus displaying high growth rates (hell, theres even variation between individuals). A final point concerns the age of the individual, which is....contradictory. Based on the limb bones, the study estimates that the animal was at the very least 15 years old, but previous study of the osteoderms has yielded an estimated age of 18 years old. Ultimately, further study is needed, but it does clearly show how the histology of different parts of the skeleton varies.

Shown below, Uberabasuchus terrificus by Scott Reid

Predation on pterosaurs

Here's a fun one, "A juvenile pterosaur vertebra with putative crocodilian bite from the Campanian of Alberta, Canada", once again with a name that tells you very much what you're in for.

Brown and colleagues report on the discovery of a juvenile specimen of the azhdarchid Cryodrakon from the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada. The neck vertebra bears some conical bite marks, notably different from those of theropods, which generally have D-shaped or compressed tooth crosssections (sans spinosaurids, which aren't present). Champsosaurus is also ruled out due to its inferred feeding preferences, weak bite force and slender teeth. Mammals are potential candidates, but the team regards it as more likely that the trace maker was a crocodilian. Considering the fauna of the Dinosaur Park Formation, this would suggest the culprit was either Leidyosuchus, Albertochampsa or an animal described as "Stangerochampsa-like".

Now this is a very interesting, if not exactly unexpected interaction. On the one hand, having direct fossil evidence for this is a big deal, even if we don't know if the bite marks were left due to the pterosaur being actively hunted or if they were simply left when a lucky croc came across the carcass of an already deceased Cryodrakon. On the other hand, crocodiles and kin are notoriously opportunistic and broad in their diet, so one feeding on a pterosaur is something that seems like a no-brainer in principle, especially a relatively small individual with a wingspan of "only" 2 meters. This is further supported by the fact that crocodilian bite marks have also been reported from the Romanian pterosaur Eurazhdarcho.

Obvious difference in prey size and geography aside (and taxon names even within the chosen setting while we're on it), Prehistoric Planet really nailed the nailon the head with this one.

In the left corner, a juvenile Cryodrakton (art by Hank Sharpe). In the right corner, Leidyosuchus (art by Gunnar Bivens) LET THEM FIGHT (or scavenge)

Evolutionary trends and extinctions in Thalattosuchia

This one's a last minute entry, by which I mean this one got just published as I was about to wrap this whole thing up. "Analysing Thalattosuchia palaeobiodiversity through the prism of phylogenetic comparative methods" explores how the evolution and the extinctions of members of this group were shaped by both biotic and abiotic factors.

Given the shere breadth of this topic, a quick summary of thalattosuchia seems kinda in order. In short, thalattosuchians are a group of what are likely to be early crocodyliforms adapted to life at sea. They can be split into two groups, the teleosauroids, superficially gharial like animals that likely stuck to coastal waters, and the metriorhynchoids, open ocean animals with fluked tails, no body armor and paddle-like limbs. Both groups reached their greatest diversity in the late Jurassic, but managed to survive into the Cretaceous before disappearing entirely.

The study recaps that thalattosuchians first reach great diversity during the Toarcian, tho this is likely influenced by preservation bias thanks to Lagerstätten such as the Posidonia shale, and a later diversification takes place during the Bathonian. Regardless, the transition from the lower to middle Jurassic sees an increased trend in both thalattosuchian groups towards shorter snouts, which are associated with durophagy or hypercarnivory. This essentially gives rise to the teleosauroids of the Machimosaurinaei, which appear during the Bathonian and have blunt, robust teeth, as well as the metriorhynchoid Geosaurinae, which appeared at the same time and had ziphodont (serrated teeth). The reasons for this could be twofold. On the one hand, thalattosuchians were very abundant, so expanding into new nisches helped them coexist, with ecosystems preserving fish-eaters, hypercarnivores, durophages and more at the same time. More of an underlying factor could be a drop in ichthyosaur diversity, leaving plenty of open nisches for these crocs to fill.

Subsequently, during the transition from the Middle to Late Jurassic, there was another diversification event with both groups establishing new major clades, possibly associated with the warm temperatures of the Late Jurassic, before the diversity crashes with the onset of the Cretaceous. The authors note that this too might have been related to climate, with the Cretaceous survivors mostly being found in warmer waters.

Left: A Dakosaurus ambushing an ichthyosaur by Gabriel Ugueto Right: A large Machimosaurus rests on the beach as a sauropod approaches, art by Joschua Knüppe

and for the final study I wanna talk about

Kuttysuchus: A new Aetosaur from India

Now, by all accounts one might be surprised to see this just kinda thrown in at the end here rather than getting a dedicated post as I usually like to do with new forms. And truth be told, theres just not that much to say about "A New paratypothoracin aetosaur (Archosauria: Pseudosuchia) from the Upper Triassic Dharmaram Formation of India and its biostratigraphic implications".

Kuttysuchus is our first pseudosuchian to be described this year and to get things out of the way, its not super exciting in terms of material. Like some other recently named aetosaurs, Kuttysuchus is based entirely on a handfull of osteoderms. And there's nothing wrong with that, after all osteoderms are rather distinctive for these animals. It does however mean that the information we can get from them is a bit limited and thus makes it hard to really put together something engaging.

More interesting than the anatomy then is the range and its relationship to other aetosaurs. The fossils are known from the Dharmaram Formation of India, which you might recall is also home to the recently named Venkatasuchus. Both Venkatasuchus and Kuttysuchus are members of the Paratypothoracini, tho the former is significantly more derived and the latter more basal.

Fossil osteoderms of Kuttysuchus, all belonging to the central double row that stretches across the back.