Postcranial anatomy of Prestosuchus chiniquensis (Archosauria: Loricata) from the Triassic of Brazil.

Prestosuchus chiniquensis is the best represented pseudosuchian archosaur from the Pinheiros-Chiniquá Sequence, Middle-Late Triassic (Ladinian/Carnian) of the Santa Maria Supersequence, Southern Brazil. Several incomplete specimens attributed to this species have been described, but the morphology of the postcranial skeleton of P. chiniquensis is poorly known.

New rhadinosuchine proterochampsids from the late Middle-early Late Triassic of southern Brazil enhance the diversity of archosauriforms.

Proterochampsidae is a clade of non-archosaurian archosauriforms restricted to the Middle to the Late Triassic of the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin of Argentina and the Santa Maria Supersequence of Brazil. A reappraisal of proterochampsid specimens from the Brazilian Dinodontosaurus Assemblage Zone (AZ) of the Pinheiros-Chiniquá Sequence (late Ladinian-early Carnian) is presented here. One of the specimens was preliminary assigned to Chanaresuchus sp.

An exceptional fossil skull from South America and the origins of the archosauriform radiation.

Birds, dinosaurs, crocodilians, pterosaurs and their close relatives form the highly diverse clade Archosauriformes. Archosauriforms have a deep evolutionary history, originating in the late Permian, prior to the end-Permian mass extinction, and radiating in the Triassic to dominate Mesozoic ecosystems. However, the origins of this clade and its extraordinarily successful body plan remain obscure.

New insights on Prestosuchus chiniquensis Huene, 1942 (Pseudosuchia, Loricata) based on new specimens from the "Tree Sanga" Outcrop, Chiniquá Region, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

The 'rauisuchians' are a group of Triassic pseudosuchian archosaurs that displayed a near global distribution. Their problematic taxonomic resolution comes from the fact that most taxa are represented only by a few and/or mostly incomplete specimens. In the last few decades, renewed interest in early archosaur evolution has helped to clarify some of these problems, but further studies on the taxonomic and paleobiological aspects are still needed.

The "χ" of the Matter: Testing the Relationship between Paleoenvironments and Three Theropod Clades.

The view of spinosaurs as dinosaurs of semi-aquatic habits and strongly associated with marginal and coastal habitats are deeply rooted in both scientific and popular knowledge, but it was never statistically tested. Inspired by a previous analysis of other dinosaur clades and major paleoenvironmental categories, here we present our own statistical evaluation of the association between coastal and terrestrial paleoenvironments and spinosaurids, along with other two theropod taxa: abelisaurids and carcharodontosaurids. We also included a taphonomic perspective and classified the occurrences in categories related to potential biases in order to better address our interpretations.

First 'Rauisuchian' archosaur (Pseudosuchia, Loricata) for the Middle Triassic Santacruzodon assemblage zone (Santa Maria Supersequence), Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil.

The 'Rauisuchia' are a group of Triassic pseudosuchian archosaurs that displayed a near worldwide distribution. In Brazil, their fossils are found only in the Santa Maria Formation (Paraná Basin) of the Rio Grande do Sul State, specifically in the Middle Triassic Dinodontosaurus assemblage zone (AZ) and the Late Triassic Hyperodapedon AZ (Rauisuchus tiradentes). Between these two cenozones is the Santacruzodon AZ (Middle Triassic), whose record was, until now, restricted to non-mammalian cynodonts and the proterochampsian Chanaresuchus bonapartei.