Paratomistoma is an extinct 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 tomistomine

Tomistominae

Tomistominae is a subfamily of crocodylians that includes one living species, the False gharial. Many more extinct species are known, extending the range of the subfamily back to the Eocene epoch...

  crocodilia

Crocodilia

Crocodilia is an order of large reptiles that appeared about 84 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period . They are the closest living relatives of birds, as the two groups are the only known survivors of the Archosauria...

n. It 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...

 CGM 42188, a partial 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...

 skull and lower jaw discovered at Wadi Hitan, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, in Middle Eocene-age rocks of the Gehannam Formation. The skull is unfused but considered morphologically

Morphology (biology)

In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....

 mature. Paratomistoma was named in 2000 by Christopher Brochu and Philip Gingerich

Philip D. Gingerich

Philip D. Gingerich is a Professor of Paleontology, Professor of Geological Sciences, Professor of Biology, Professor of Anthropology and Director, Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan. His research focus is in vertebrate paleontology, especially the Paleocene-Eocene transition and...

; 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 P. courti in honor of Nicholas Court, who found CGM 42188. They performed a phylogenetic analysis

Cladistics

Cladistics is a method of classifying species of organisms into groups called clades, which consist of an ancestor organism and all its descendants . For example, birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles, and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor form a clade...

 and found Paratomistoma to be a derived

Derived

In phylogenetics, a derived trait is a trait that is present in an organism, but was absent in the last common ancestor of the group being considered. This may also refer to structures that are not present in an organism, but were present in its ancestors, i.e. traits that have undergone secondary...

tomistomine. It may have been a marine or coastal crocodilian.