Description and systematics of new specimens of Crocodylomorpha and Lepidosauria from the Quiricó Formation, Lower Cretaceous of the Sanfranciscana Basin.
Sanfranciscana Basin; Quiricó Formation; Borioteiiodea; Notosuchia, Lower Cretaceous.
The Sanfranciscana Basin has become the focus of many paleontological studies due to its paleogeographic context and age. The vertebrate fossils recently found and presented in this work are of great importance because of their uniqueness and rarity. They also represent key pieces for understanding the relationships between Brazilian and African vertebrate faunas during the initial stages of the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean. In this work, we describe and discuss new occurrences of a basal notosuchian (skull, axial and appendicular skeleton, partially preserved) and a borioteiiodean lizard (right and left anterior dentary rami) from deposits of the Quiricó Formation, Sanfranciscana Basin, collected in the region of Campo Azul, State of Minas Gerais. These occurrences of crocodylomorphs and Squamata, associated with previously described fossils of sauropod dinosaurs (bony remains) assigned as Rebbachisauridae, isolated theropod teeth (Carcharodontosauridae and Abelisauridae), as well as remains of dipnoan fish and Lepisosteidae for the same locality, point out similarities between the African fauna of the Kem Kem Beds and the Quiricó Formation and contribute to a better understanding of the evolution and paleogeographic distribution of these groups of crocodylomorphs and Borioteiioidea that inhabited this region during the Cretaceous.