Saltopus elginensis (von Huene 1910) Late Triassic, South America (~210 mya), ~60 cm long, is known from a spine and pelvis in dorsal view plus a few limb parts. The curved femur, open space between the radius and ulna and the pedal bone were most similar to those of Lagosuchus.
Von Huene (1910) found six sacrals. Benton and Walker (2011) found two sacrals twice as long as the adjoining dorsals and caudals. I found four sacrals (as in Scleromochlus), each the same length as adjoining vertebrae.
No basal dinosaur captures as many sacral vertebrae between the ilia. No fenestrasaur or dinosaur had such a large space between the ulna and radius. In consideration of the elongation of the pelvis, tibia and toes, Saltopus was a bipedal croc, like Scleromochlus.
Lagosuchus talampayensis (Romer 1971; PULR 09; Late Triassic) was once considered congeneric with the basal theropod, Marasuchus, then separated from it, then rejoined with it. No prior workers tested Lagosuchus with Saltopus (above), a coeval European taxon
Lagosuchus has only two unexpanded sacrals and a shorter antebrachium. Distinct from other related taxa, the two share a lack of gastralia, a lack of dorsal scutes, a relatively thick fibula, a mesotarsal ankle joint without a calcanaeal heel and long feet (> half the tibia length) without compressed metatarsals. |
