Kemkemia
| Kemkemia Temporal range: Cenomanian
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|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Archosauria |
| Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
| Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Clade: | Solidocrania |
| Clade: | Crocodyliformes |
| Genus: | †Kemkemia Cau & Maganuco, 2009 |
| Species: | †K. auditorei
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| Binomial name | |
| †Kemkemia auditorei Cau & Maganuco, 2009
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Kemkemia is a genus of probable crocodyliforms living in the Cretaceous, described from a single fossil that was recovered in 1999 from Morocco by an Italian team searching for fossil invertebrates. The fossil of Kemkemia dates from the Cenomanian age.
History
[edit]The type species, Kemkemia auditorei, was named and described in 2009 by Italian paleontologists Andrea Cau and Simone Maganuco and is based on a single distal caudal vertebra, MSNM V6408. This vertebra measures 60.48 mm in length and 33.81 mm in height.[1] The genus name refers to the Kem Kem Beds and the specific name honours Italian paleontological illustrator Marco Auditore.
Description
[edit]The describers, because of the general morphology of the vertebra, especially the strongly developed neural spine, originally considered it likely that K. auditorei was a theropod dinosaur belonging to the group Neoceratosauria. In view of the limited remains, they cautiously assigned it to a more general Neotheropoda incertae sedis. However, the authors later discovered it to be a typical crocodyliform, rather than an unusual theropod.[2] Meanwhile, spinosaurids and crocodyliforms share a number of morphological convergences, and the Kemkemia holotype shows a combination of features between "Sigilmassasaurus" and crocodyliforms. Therefore, it is not determinable whether K. auditorei is a crocodyliform or a spinosaurid.[3]
Kemkemia was a predator with a body length of about 4–5 m (13–16 ft) and, given that the vertebra is not very robust, possibly lightly built. The species length could be extrapolated because the specimen is that of an adult.
Paleoecology
[edit]The fossil is one of the few probable known crocodyliform caudal vertebrae. It comes from the Kem Kem Beds that have produced the fossils of very large predatory dinosaur genera: Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus and Deltadromeus.
References
[edit]
- ^ Cau, Andrea; Maganuco, Simone (2009). "A new theropod dinosaur, represented by a single unusual caudal vertebra from the Kem Kem Beds (Cretaceous) of Morocco". Atti Soc. It. Sci. Nat. Museo Civ. Stor. Nat. Milano. 150 (II): 239–257.
- ^ Lio, G., Agnolin, F., Cau, A. and Maganuco, S. (2012). "Crocodyliform affinities for Kemkemia auditorei Cau and Maganuco, 2009, from the Late Cretaceous of Morocco." Atti della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano, 153 (I), s. 119–126.
- ^ Chiarenza, Alfio Alessandro; Cau, Andrea (2016-02-29). "A large abelisaurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from Morocco and comments on the Cenomanian theropods from North Africa". PeerJ. 4: e1754. doi:10.7717/peerj.1754. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 4782726. PMID 26966675.
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