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BRACHYCHAMPSA
(brak-y-cham-sah)
Brachychampsa
Named By: Charles W. Gilmore in 1911
Time Period: 83.5-63.3 Ma Late Cretaceous - Early Paleocene
Location: Across the USA including Colorado, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. Also Saskatchewan of Canada and now also Kazakhstan
Size: About 2.5 to 3 meters long
Diet: Carnivore
Fossil(s): Well over a hundred individuals of varying degrees of completeness
Classification: | Chordata | Reptilia | Crocodylomorpha | Crocodylia | Alligatoroidea | Globidonta |
Also known as: | Brachyuranochampsa |
About

Brachychampsa is an extinct genus of alligatoroid. Specimens have been found from New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota, New Jersey, and Saskatchewan. One specimen has been found from the Darbasa Formation of Kazakhstan, although the species status is indeterminant for the fossil. The genus first appeared during the late Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous (Judithian North American stage) and became extinct during the early Danian stage of the Paleocene (Puercan North American stage), a few million years after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. Brachychampsa is distinguished by an enlarged fourth maxillary tooth in the upper jaw.

Brachychampsa's position within the superfamily Alligatoroidea has undergone many revisions since it was first named. Originally it was placed within the family Alligatoridae, and was later refined to the subfamily Alligatorinae in 1964, only to be placed outside both Alligatorinae and Alligatoridae (but still within Alligatoroidea) in 1994.

Read more about Brachychampsa at Wikipedia
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