Langstonia (meaning "[crocodile] of Langston", in honor of paleontologist Wann Langston, Jr.) is an extinct genus of notosuchian crocodylomorph of the family Sebecidae. It lived in the middle Miocene (specifically in the Laventan land-mammal age), in the "Monkey Beds" of the Colombian Villavieja Formation. Langstonia was named in 2007 by Alfredo Paolillo and Omar Linares for fossils originally described by Langston in 1965 as Sebecus huilensis. Thus, the type species is L. huilensis.
Discovery and naming
The first fossils of Langstonia were discovered in the province of Huila in Colombia by the Spanish geologist José Royo y Gómez, during the expeditions in the region by the American paleontologist Robert Stirton. They were found in the area called the Tatacoa Desert at the locality V-4517, characterized by gray claystone overlying sandstone sediments. These have been named the Honda Group, of the La Venta fauna, the geological formation named the "lechos de monos" (Monkey Beds) in 1945. Many of the remains discovered were then sent to the collections of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley (UCMP), where they are still housed. The description of the specimens did not come until 1965, when the American paleontologist Wann Langston Jr. published his monograph Fossil Crocodylians from Colombia, in which he made a detailed analysis of several fossils of crocodylomorphs in Colombia, including the remains of other species as Purussaurus neivensis, Mourasuchus atopus, Gryposuchus colombianus and Charactosuchus fieldsi (plus a possible dyrosaurid). As for the sebecid material he designated the dentary UCMP 37877 as the holotype of a new species a fragmentary taxon, which he called Sebecus huilensis; thus extending the time range of this genus and the family, hitherto known only from remains of the Eocene of Argentina. Langston gave the taxon a new species considering that besides being larger, as the dentary fragment is 68% larger than the Argentine species, S. icaeorhinus, it was also proportionally thinner, and had with more recurved teeth being laterally compressed. Additionally Langston referred a series of zyphodont teeth in the area found this species, with some teeth referred to as similar but classified generally to Sebecus sp., which do not come from the Miocene but the Eocene, found in the department of Santander in Colombia.Subsequently, Éric Buffetaut and Robert Hoffstetter (1977) reported from the Ipururo Formation in the Amazon region of Peru the presence of a huge cranial portion (area of the snout), referring it to this genus, and although its age coincides with S. huilensis, distinguished it through it being larger and more robust. Arthur Busbey (1986) later brought new remains of the species also from the "Monkey Beds" of Huila in Colombia, this time a fragment of premaxilla, smaller than S. icaeorhinus, and equally thin. He also described the first remains of the jugal bone, the suspensory and retroarticular joint in the jaw, and a fragment of bone scute (osteoderm), which were the earliest known for this family. Busbey also ruled out the Peruvian fossil belonging to S. huilensis, based on its unique anatomy, less spaced teeth and a wider nose. Langston, along with the Argentine paleontologist Zulma Gasparini, reported new remains of the species in a contribution on fossil crocodylomorphs of Colombia for the book Vertebrate Paleontology of the Neotropics: The Miocene Fauna of La Venta (1997). In this case it would be new specimens of teeth, a somewhat fuller premaxilla, an anterior fragment of dentary, and two vertebrae: a sacral and a caudal, which also were unknown to this group. The specimens discovered on this occasion were deposited in the Geological Museum of Ingeominas (previous name of Colombian Geological Service). Moreover, Alfredo Paolillo and Omar Linares described a new genus of a large Venezuelan Miocene sebecid, Barinasuchus of Venezuela. In their article they considered that the traits of two species of Sebecus, S. huilensis and S. querejazus of Paleocene of Bolivia, and their age justified the creation of separate genres for both: S. huilensis was given the genus Langstonia, in honor of its initial descriptor and his "(..)advances in knowledge of crocodylians of Tertiary Colombia in particular and South America in general", while S. querejazus was renamed Zulmasuchus, although some authors still maintain both species within Sebecus. Paolillo and Linares also clarified the status of the Peruvian fossil before assigned to the species, assigning it to Barinasuchus, although this does not rule out its presence in more southern areas; in the area of the Peruvian Amazon known as the Fitzcarrald Arch has been found a characteristically flattened tooth from the middle Miocene therefore assigned to Langstonia. Finally, a premaxilla and maxilla fragment found in Itaboraí Basin in Brazil dating from the Middle Paleocene (and where have been found fossils of other sebecids) has been classified as related to this species, under the name of Sebecus cf. huilensis, whose main features are very similar to Langstonia, suggesting that the latter is part of a lineage of sebecids with an extensive temporal and geographical record.
Specimens known Here is a list of specimens assigned to the species, with a brief description of these. They are grouped according to the institution in which they are preserved:
Museum of Paleontology at the University of California Not all materials from this collection were assigned to Langstonia huilensis but are included because of their similar morphology.
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