page_title: Shansisuchus
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Shansisuchus / Description
caption_attribution_description: Shanshisuchus shansisuchus
context_page_description: Shansisuchus is an extinct genus of archosauriform reptile belonging to the family Erythrosuchidae that lived during the Middle Triassic in what is now China. The first fossils of Shansisuchus were discovered from the Ermaying Formation of Shansi Province in 1964 by Chinese paleontologist Yang Zhongjian. Like other erythrosuchids, Shansisuchus was a large-bodied carnivore with a large, deep skull. Shansisuchus is unique among early archosauriforms in having a hole in its skull called a subnarial fenestra.
context_section_description: Shansisuchus is a large erythrosuchid distinguished from other members of the group by two characters: a tongue-and-groove articulation between the premaxilla and nasal bones of the skull and the presence of a subnarial fenestra. In Shansisuchus the premaxilla, a bone that makes up the front of the snout, projects backward and fits into a groove in the nasal, a bone that makes up the top of the snout. The subnarial fenestra is present between the external nares (nasal opening) and the antorbital fenestra, a hole in front of the eye socket. It is separated from the antorbital fenestra by a vertical projection of the maxilla bone. A subnarial fenestra is present in a few other more derived archosauriforms such as some dinosaurs and pseudosuchians, but its morphology in Shansisuchus is unique.
caption: Restoration
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:12:05 20:52:21", "Image ExifOffset": "161", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2664", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2102"}