Suchosaurus is as a spinosaurid theropod 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...

 from Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, originally believed to be 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 crocodile

Crocodile

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

. The type material consists of teeth. Two species, S. cultridens and S. girardi have been named, though the S. girardi material was reclassified by Buffetaut as Baryonyx walkeri. The remaining species, S. cultridens, is known only from a single tooth that strongly resembles the teeth of the contemporary Baryonyx walkeri

Baryonyx

Baryonyx is a genus of carnivorous saurischian dinosaur first discovered in clay pits just south of Dorking, England, and later reported from fossils found in northern Spain and Portugal. It is known to contain only one species, Baryonyx walkeri...

. While there are some differences between the teeth, these may or may not represent individual variation among specimens, and Suchosaurus may be a senior synonym of Baryonyx.

Suchosaurus was considered a nomen dubium

Nomen dubium

In zoological nomenclature, a nomen dubium is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application...

by Mateus et al. (2011).

External links

• First post of a long discussion of Suchosaurus as a dinosaur and its implications, in the Dinosaur Mailing List Archives