Wargosuchus 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 baurusuchid

Baurusuchidae

Baurusuchidae is a Gondwanan family of mesoeucrocodylians that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It is a group of terrestrial hypercarnivorous crocodilians from South America and possibly Pakistan. Baurusuchidae has been defined as a clade containing the most recent common ancestor of Baurusuchus...

 mesoeucrocodylia

Mesoeucrocodylia

Mesoeucrocodylia is the name of the clade that includes Eusuchia and the paraphyletic group Mesosuchia. The group appeared during the Early Jurassic, and continues to the present day....

n from the Late Cretaceous

Late Cretaceous

The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...

 of Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. It is known from a fragmentary skull from the Santonian

Santonian

The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 85.8 ± 0.7 mya and 83.5 ± 0.7 mya...

-age Bajo de la Carpa Formation

Bajo de la Carpa Formation

The Bajo de la Carpa Formation is a geologic formation that outcrops in Patagonia, in the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, Argentina. It is the first of two formations belonging to the Río Colorado Subgroup within the Neuquén Group...

 of the Neuquén Group

Neuquén Group

The Neuquén Group is a group of geologic formations found in Argentina. Rocks in the Neuquén Group fall within the Cenomanian to early Campanian stages of the Late Cretaceous Period, about 100 million to 80 million years in age...

, found in the vicinity of Neuquén

Neuquén, Argentina

-Sister cities:Neuquén is sister city, as designated by Sister Cities International with: Knoxville, Tennessee, United States Treviso, Veneto, Italy Valdivia, Chile-External links: - Official website....

, Neuquén Province

Neuquén Province

Neuquén is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west...

, and was described by Agustín Martinelli and Diego Pais in 2008. 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 W. australis.

Wargosuchus 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...

 MOZ-PV 6134, a partial right 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....

 and 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...

, and partial skull roof. Martinelli and Pais distinguished Wargosuchus from other mesoeucrocodylians by skull details, such as a deep groove on the midline of the frontal bone

Frontal bone

The frontal bone is a bone in the human skull that resembles a cockleshell in form, and consists of two portions:* a vertical portion, the squama frontalis, corresponding with the region of the forehead....

s, a large depression for the olfactory bulb

Olfactory bulb

The olfactory bulb is a structure of the vertebrate forebrain involved in olfaction, the perception of odors.-Anatomy:In most vertebrates, the olfactory bulb is the most rostral part of the brain. In humans, however, the olfactory bulb is on the inferior side of the brain...

s, and enlargement of the last tooth of the premaxilla followed by a deep pit for the following tooth of the lower jaw. The animal had a robust skull. It shared its setting with four other taxa of mesoeucrocodylians: common Notosuchus

Notosuchus

Notosuchus is an extinct genus of South American notosuchian crocodylomorph. It was terrestrial, living approximately 85 million years ago in the Coniacian or Santonian stages of the Late Cretaceous. Remains have been found in the Bajo de la Carpa Formation in Patagonia, Argentina. First named in...

, and rare Cynodontosuchus

Cynodontosuchus

Cynodontosuchus is an extinct genus of baurusuchid mesoeucrocodylian. Fossils have been found from Argentina of Late Cretaceous age from the Bajo de la Carpa Formation as well as the Pichi Picun Leufu Formation...

, Lomasuchus

Lomasuchus

Lomasuchus is an extinct genus of peirosaurid mesoeucrocodylian. Fossils have been found from the Bajo de la Carpa Formation of the Neuquén Group outcropping in Neuquén Province, Argentina...

, and Peirosaurus

Peirosaurus

Peirosaurus is an extinct genus of peirosaurid crocodylomorph. It is the type genus of the family Peirosauridae. Fossils of the type species P. tormini, first described in 1955, have been found from the Marília Formation in Uberaba, Brazil and date back to the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late...

.