Yacarerani 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 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...

 notosuchia

Notosuchia

Notosuchia is a suborder of primarily Gondwanan mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs that lived during the Cretaceous. Fossils have been found from South America, Africa, and Asia...

n crocodylomorph. Fossils have been found in 2002 from central Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

 in Amboró National Park

Amboró National Park

Amboró National Park in central Bolivia is a nature reserve with over 800 species of birds, over 125 mammalian species including puma, ocelot, and the rare Spectacled Bear. Covering an area of 4,425 km² , it is protected from human settlements, hunting, mining and deforestation, though...

 and are Turonian

Turonian

The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 93.5 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.3 ± 1 Ma...

-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...

 in age. The genus was recently described in 2009 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology was founded in 1980 at the University of Oklahoma by Dr. Jiri Zidek. It is a scientific journal that publishes original contributions on all aspects of the vertebrate paleontology, including vertebrate origins, evolution, functional morphology, taxonomy,...

. The material represents two individuals and was found in association with eggs that are thought to have been part of a nest. Yacarerani was a small crocodylomorph at around 80 centimetres (31.5 in) in length. It may have lived in small groups, creating burrows to lay eggs in.

The dentition of Yacarerani, like many other notosuchians, is 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...

, with different tooth morphologies in different parts of the jaws. Two teeth in the lower jaw project forward from the tip, resembling the incisor

Incisor

Incisors are the first kind of tooth in heterodont mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and mandible below.-Function:...

s of a rabbit

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...

. Other teeth, situated posteriorly, are cusped and adapted for grinding or chopping food such as tubers or small arthropods. In the lower jaw, the dentary tooth rows merge posterior to the anterior dentary teeth. The same is true for the upper tooth rows, which merge on the palate.

Below is a cladogram

Cladogram

A cladogram is a diagram used in cladistics which shows ancestral relations between organisms, to represent the evolutionary tree of life. Although traditionally such cladograms were generated largely on the basis of morphological characters, DNA and RNA sequencing data and computational...

 from Novas et al. (2009) showing the phylogenetic position of Yacarerani: