Edentosuchus is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of protosuchia

Protosuchia

Protosuchia is a group of extinct Mesozoic crocodyliforms. They were small in size and terrestrial. In phylogenetic terms, Protosuchia is considered an informal group because it is a grade of basal crocodyliforms, not a true clade....

n crocodylomorph

Crocodylomorpha

The Crocodylomorpha are an important group of archosaurs that include the crocodilians and their extinct relatives.During Mesozoic and early Tertiary times the Crocodylomorpha were far more diverse than they are now. Triassic forms were small, lightly built, active terrestrial animals. These were...

. It is known from fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s found in rocks of the Early Cretaceous

Early Cretaceous

The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous...

-age Tugulu Group

Tugulu Group

The Tugulu Group is a geological formation in Xinjiang, China whose strata date back to the Early Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.-Dinosaurs:-Pterosaurs:-Crurotarsans:-References:...

 from the Junggar Basin

Dzungaria

Dzungaria, also called Zungaria, is a geographical region in northwest China corresponding to the northern half of Xinjiang. It covers approximately , lying mostly within Xinjiang, and extending into western Mongolia and eastern Kazakhstan...

, Xinjiang

Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...

, China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. Two partial skulls and several neck vertebrae are known to date. An articulated partial postcrania

Postcrania

Postcrania[p] in zoology and vertebrate paleontology refers to all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g...

l skeleton may also belong to this genus, but there is no overlapping material between it and known Edentosuchus specimens. Edentosuchus was described in 1973 by Yang Zhongjian

Yang Zhongjian

Yang Zhongjian , courtesy name Keqiang , also known as C.C. Young, was one of China's foremost paleontologists. He has been called the 'Father of Chinese vertebrate paleontology'...

 (C. C. Young), and is based on

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 IVPP

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology

The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of China is a prominent research institution and collections repository for fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaurand cat poo specimens...

 V 3236, a partial skull and associated neck vertebrae. The type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 is E. tienshanensis. A joint Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opened in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, USA in 1913 as the Museum of History, Science, and Art. The moving force behind it was a museum association founded in 1910. Its distinctive main building, with fitted marble walls and domed and...

-National Geological Museum of China expedition recovered another partial skull in 2000. Yang originally assigned it to its own family (Edentosuchidae) within Protosuchia, but later research by Diego Pol and colleagues using the new material found it to be a protosuchid.

Edentosuchus had markedly heterodont

Heterodont

The anatomical term heterodont refers to animals which possess more than a single tooth morphology. For example, members of the Synapsida generally possess incisors, canines , premolars, and molars. The presence of heterodont dentition is evidence of some degree of feeding/hunting specialization...

 teeth. In the upper jaw, the teeth in the tip of the snout (premaxilla

Premaxilla

The incisive bone is the portion of the maxilla adjacent to the incisors. It is a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the jaws of many animals, usually bearing teeth, but not always. They are connected to the maxilla and the nasals....

e) were conical. Following them, the first two teeth of the maxilla

Maxilla

The maxilla is a fusion of two bones along the palatal fissure that form the upper jaw. This is similar to the mandible , which is also a fusion of two halves at the mental symphysis. Sometimes The maxilla (plural: maxillae) is a fusion of two bones along the palatal fissure that form the upper...

e had three cusps

Cusp (dentistry)

A cusp is an occlusal or incisal eminence on a tooth.Canine teeth, otherwise known as cuspids, each possess a single cusp, while premolars, otherwise known as bicuspids, possess two each. Molars normally possess either four or five cusps...

. The next two had numerous small cusps, and the fifth and last was bulbous, larger than others, and featured small cusps. In the lower jaw, several of the nine teeth on each side featured small cusps, but the second tooth was a greatly enlarged fang

Fang

Fang is a mammal's canine tooth.Fang may also refer to:* A snake's poison-injecting tooth: see snake venom* Fang people, in Central Africa* Fang language, spoken by Fang people...

. The skull was only a few centimetres (or inches) long, and had a short, relatively narrow snout and wide posterior

Anatomical terms of location

Standard anatomical terms of location are designations employed in science that deal with the anatomy of animals to avoid ambiguities that might otherwise arise. They are not language-specific, and thus require no translation...

 section.

Edentosuchus lived in a hot, seasonally arid floodplain

Floodplain

A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...

 environment. Living alongside it were turtles, dsungaripterid

Dsungaripteridae

Dsungaripteridae is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea....

 pterosaur

Pterosaur

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight...

s, and theropod

Theropoda

Theropoda is both a suborder of bipedal saurischian dinosaurs, and a clade consisting of that suborder and its descendants . Dinosaurs belonging to the suborder theropoda were primarily carnivorous, although a number of theropod groups evolved herbivory, omnivory, and insectivory...

, sauropod

Sauropoda

Sauropoda , or the sauropods , are an infraorder of saurischian dinosaurs. They had long necks, long tails, small heads , and thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land...

, stegosauria

Stegosauria

Known colloquially as stegosaurs, the Stegosauria are a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Periods, being found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, predominantly in what is now North America and China....

n, psittacosaurid

Psittacosauridae

The Psittacosauridae were a group of ceratopsian dinosaurs, which lived between 140.2 and 99.6 million years ago. The family Psittacosauridae was first named by American paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1923...

, and ornithopod

Ornithopod

Ornithopods or members of the clade Ornithopoda are a group of ornithischian dinosaurs that started out as small, bipedal running grazers, and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous world, and dominated the North American...

 dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s.