A new species of Mystriosuchus described

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A new species of the phytosaur genus Mystriosuchus has been described from four Late Triassic age specimens from the Austrian Alps. The new species has been given the new species name M. steinbergeri, with the species name originating from Sepp Steinberger, a member of a local caving club who first discovered the fossils in 1980. These remains were excavated by a team from the Natural History Museum in Vienna in 1982 and were put on display in said museum. However, due to a lack of specialists on phytosaurs at the time, these specimens weren't actively researched until 2013, with them only being described as a new species this year. Bone analysis of all four of these specimens suggests that they were all about eight years old and were 13 feet (4 meters) long when they died and that they were still actively growing,. The specimens were found in marine settlements, in contrast to the freshwater sediments in which phytosaur remains are typically found, providing evidence that some phytosaurs could live in or at least pass through marine environments. Here is an image of some of the skull fossils used to describe the new species and a reconstruction of the new species by Mark Witton, as well as a link to the paper describing the new species.





Paper (abstract only):https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz014/5487160?redirectedFrom=fulltext