Protocaiman

Protocaiman Temporal range: Paleocene, 66–61.6 Ma[1] PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Holotype skull
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauromorpha
Clade:	Archosauriformes
Order:	Crocodilia
Family:	Alligatoridae
Subfamily:	Caimaninae
Genus:	†Protocaiman Bona et al., 2018
Species:	†P. peligrensis
Binomial name
†Protocaiman peligrensis Bona et al., 2018

Protocaiman is a caimanine genus of crocodylian first described in 2018. The type species Protocaiman peligrensis was discovered in Argentina's Salamanca Formation, and lived in Patagonia during the Paleocene epoch.^[2] The holotype is specimen MLP 80-X-10-1, which is a partial skull.^[3]

References

1. Rio, Jonathan P.; Mannion, Philip D. (6 September 2021). "Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem". PeerJ. 9: e12094. doi:10.7717/peerj.12094. PMC 8428266. PMID 34567843.
2. Bona, Paula; Ezcurra, Martín D.; Barrios, Francisco; Blanco, María V. Fernandez (2018-08-29). "A new Palaeocene crocodylian from southern Argentina sheds light on the early history of caimanines". Proc. R. Soc. B. 285 (1885): 20180843. doi:10.1098/rspb.2018.0843. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 6125902. PMID 30135152.
3. Bona, Paula; Ezcurra, Martín D.; Barrios, Francisco; Fernandez Blanco, María V. (August 29, 2018). "A new Palaeocene crocodylian from southern Argentina sheds light on the early history of caimanines". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 285 (1885): 20180843. doi:10.1098/rspb.2018.0843. PMC 6125902. PMID 30135152.