biology

Pepesuchus

Pepesuchus is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pepesuchus rather than just read about it. In short: Pepesuchus is an extinct genus of carnivorous metasuchian from the Late Cretaceous period. It is a peirosaurid which lived during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous in what is now state of São Paulo, Brazil.

Key takeaways

Pepesuchus belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pepesuchus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pepesuchus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pepesuchus is an extinct genus of carnivorous metasuchian from the Late Cretaceous period. It is a peirosaurid which lived during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous in what is now state of São Paulo, Brazil. It was a semiaquatic crocodylomorph.

Etymology Pepesuchus was named by Diogenes A. Campos, Gustavo R. Oliveira, Rodrigo G. Figueiredo, Douglas Riff, Sergio A.K. Azevedo, Luciana B. Carvalho and Alexander W.A. Kellner in 2011 and the type species is Pepesuchus deiseae. The generic name honours Professor José Martin Suárez (known by his colleagues as "Pepe"), and "suchus", from Greek meaning crocodile. The specific name honours the paleontologist Deise Dias Rêgo Henriques.

Description Pepesuchus is known from the holotype MN 7005-V, which consists of nearly complete skeleton and skull, and from the paratype MCT 1788-R, a nearly complete skull and lower jaw likely from the same locality of the holotype. The specimens were recovered from the Presidente Prudente Formation of the Bauru Group of the northern Paraná Basin, between the cities of Pirapozinho and Presidente Prudente. In 2019, new fossil material from the Adamantina Formation was described. The skull of Pepesuchus is roughly triangular when viewed from above and is covered in small pits. The jaws are lined with many small pointed teeth. Like other sebecians, Pepesuchus has ziphodont teeth that are laterally compressed and serrated. A total of 17 teeth are present in each maxilla, the most of any sebecian after Stolokrosuchus. There are also numerous dentary teeth in the lower jaw, with the foremost ones directed in a slight forward position. The snout of Pepesuchus is somewhat wider than those of other peirosaurids and has a slight upward curve.

Classification Pepesuchus is united with the peirosaurids Peirosaurus, Lomasuchus, and Uberabasuchus on the basis of several shared characteristics. Among these features are five premaxillary teeth with the first two positioned close together and the oval-shaped cross-section of the jugal bone that makes up the lower temporal bar underneath the eye sockets. Pepesuchus also has a ridge on the maxillary shelf of the palate, a feature it shares with all members of the larger clade Sebecia (which includes peirosaurids and the related family Sebecidae).

References

Bibliography Campos, Diogenes A.; Oliveira, Gustavo R.; Figueiredo, Rodrigo G.; Riff, Douglas; Azevedo, Sergio A.K.; Carvalho, Luciana B.; Kellner, Alexander W.A. (2011), "On a new peirosaurid crocodyliform from the Upper Cretaceous, Bauru Group, southeastern Brazil" (PDF), Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 83 (1): 317–327, doi:10.1590/S0001-37652011000100020, retrieved 2019-02-18 Geroto, Caio Fabricio Cezar; Bertini, Reinaldo J. (2019), "New material of Pepesuchus (Crocodyliformes; Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Bauru Group: implications about its phylogeny and the age of the Adamantina Formation", Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 185 (2): 312–334, doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zly037, hdl:11449/185632, retrieved 2019-02-18

External links Data related to Pepesuchus at Wikispecies

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pepesuchus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pepesuchus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pepesuchus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pepesuchus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pepesuchus

In research: Pepesuchus appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pepesuchus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pepesuchus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Adamantina Formation, Campanian life, Cretaceous Brazil, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pepesuchus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pepesuchus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pepesuchus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pepesuchus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pepesuchus in simple terms?

Why does Pepesuchus matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pepesuchus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pepesuchus.