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Osteolaemus osborni (SCHMIDT, 1919)

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Higher TaxaCrocodylidae (Crocodylia, crocodiles)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Osborn’s Dwarf crocodile
G: Osborns Stumpfkrokodil 
SynonymOsteoblepharon osborni SCHMIDT 1919: 421
Osteolaemus tetraspis osborni — WERMUTH 1953
Osteolaemus tetraspis osborni — WERMUTH & MERTENS 1977
Osteolaemus osborni — EATON et al. 2009
Osteolaemus osborni — ZIEGLER et al. 2017 
Distributionosborni: Congo Basin

Type locality: forests of the northeastern Belgian Congo, Niapu  
Reproductionoviparous. 
TypesHolotype: AMNH 10082 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Nasal bones entering the nasal aperture, not produced as a bony nasal septum. Splenial elements not entering the mandibular symphysis, which extends to the fourth tooth. Fourth mandibular tooth fitting into a notch in the upper jaw.
Teeth (17-17)/(15-15). Ventral armour not at all ossified (?). A large bony plate, composed of two pieces, occupying nearly the whole upper eyelid. Maxillo-premadary suture transverse, M-shaped. Palatines narrow, with parallel sides, not produced forward beyond the anterior end of the palatal fenestra. Pterygoid produced forward to meet the palatines. Pterygoids fused, with no trace of suture. Frontal entering the supratemporal fosss, which are small and anteriorly situated.
Intermediate between Osteolaemus Cope and Crocodylus Laurenti. Related to Crocodylus by the absence of the bony nasal septum. Related to Osteolaemus by a number of minor characters: (1) conformation and pitting of the posterior part of the skull; (2) large bony plate in eyelid, in two pieces; (3) number of teeth; (4) palatine extending no further forward than the palatal fenestra.
Distinguished from both Crocodylus and Osteolaemus by the entrance of the frontal into the supratemporal fossae. None of the crocodile skulls accessible to the writer has the pterygoids completely fused as in the specimen of the new form.
Externally scarcely distinguished from Osteolaemus tetraspis Cope, except by the flatter and slenderer snout (Fig. 2). 
CommentBrochu (2007) recognized O. osborni as a distinct taxonomic unit based on variations in four cranial characters that appear to be fixed between western Africa and the Congo Basin. 
References
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