Braincase and digital endocast of a loricatan pseudosuchian (Reptilia: Archosauria) from the Upper Triassic of Nova Scotia (Canada)
摘要
We present a detailed description of an incomplete but excellently preserved braincase and a digitally generated endocast of a pseudosuchian archosaur from the Upper Triassic (Carnian) Evangeline Member of the Wolfville Formation of Nova Scotia (Canada). The general morphology of the braincase particularly resembles that of the rauisuchid Postosuchus kirkpatricki from the Upper Triassic (Norian) of Texas. Indeed, the quantitative phylogenetic analyses found the Wolfville specimen within Rauisuchidae (Postosuchus spp., Polonosuchus silesiacus, and Rauisuchus tiradentes) among loricatan pseudosuchians based on the presence of a deep and dorsoventrally elongate basisphenoid recess. Although the specimen described here shows differences from Postosuchus kirkpatricki and Postosuchus alisonae, its fragmentary condition and the absence of overlapping elements with other rauisuchids (Polonosuchus silesiacus and Rauisuchus tiradentes) led us to be cautious and identify it as aff. Postosuchus sp. The Wolfville rauisuchid braincase provides evidence for the presence of this clade in low paleolatitudes during the Carnian, bridging the higher paleolatitude occurrences of Rauisuchidae in southern Brazil and in Poland, respectively.