Schultzsuchus

Schultzsuchus is an extinct genus of pseudosuchian from the Triassic Santa Maria Formation of Brazil. Initially described as a species of Prestosuchus, a 2024 study found the taxon to differ in multiple aspects of its anatomy, enough to warrant it being placed in a distinct genus. Unlike Prestosuchus, which is a more derived member of Loricata, Schultzsuchus appears to have been a basal member of the clade Poposauroidea.

History and naming

The remains of what is now called Schultzsuchus were first described under the name Prestosuchus loricatus by German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene in 1938, who had recovered the fossils of this pseudosuchian from the Cynodontier Sanga of the Santa Maria Supersequence in 1928/29 and regarded the animal as having been congeneric with Prestosuchus chiniquensis, also named by him.

While Prestosuchus chiniquensis saw several additional finds attributed to it over the years, making it one of the best understood early pseudosuchians, P. loricatus received much less attention. This was in part due to the nature of the material, which consisted of a singular tooth crown, some vertebrae, elements of the hindlimbs as well as osteoderms. In 1942 von Huene tentatively referred some additional vertebrae and a calcaneum to this taxon, but he himself was uncertain of this assessment.

The validity of P. loricatus eventually came into question, with several authors regarding this a possibility. Krebs (1976) and Barberena (1978) regarded the species to have probably been synonymous with P. chiniquensis, though Krebs remarked that a comprehensive study of the type material was required to tell for sure. Parrish (1993) seemed to follow this interpretation as well, combining material of both species interchangeably when scoring it for a phylogenetic analysis.