Eohupehsuchus

Eohupehsuchus is a monotypic genus of aquatic diapsid from the Upper Spathian (latest Early Triassic) of Hubei Province, located in Central China.[1] The genus belongs to the order Hupehsuchia, whose members are characterized by toothless beak-like snouts, a row of dermal plates along their backs, and aquatic adaptations including paddle-shaped limbs and fusiform bodies with pachyostotic ribs.[2]

Eohupehsuchus is known only from its holotype, WGSC (Wuhan Centre of Geological Survey, China) V26003. It is the smallest known hupehsuchian.[1] Phylogenetic analyses have repeatedly recovered it as the second-most basalmember of the Hupehsuchia and as the sister group to the family Hupehsuchidae.[1][3] A pathology on the left forelimb of the holotype was interpreted by its discoverers as a bite wound from a larger marine reptile, and used to argue an early onset for modern trophic structures in marine ecosystems following the Permian-Triassic mass extinction[1] (see Paleoenvironment and paleoecology).

The generic name Eohupehsuchus comes from the Greek "eos" (Greek: εοσ), meaning "early" or "dawn;" "Hupeh," an anglicisation of Hubei (Chinese: 湖北; pinyin: Húběi); and the Greek "Suchos" (Greek: Σοũχος), meaning "Sobek."[1] (The Greek name for Sobek is a common element of scientific names for animals that resemble crocodiles, and is often translated as “crocodile” in this context, but note that hupehsuchians are not close relatives of crocodilians, the order that includes modern crocodiles.) The specific name brevicollis comes from the Latin "brevis," meaning "short," and "collis," meaning "neck." Thus the generic name can be translated as “early Hubei crocodile,” and the full binomial name as “short-necked early Hubei crocodile.”