Talk:Chasmatosaurus

Merger with Chasmatosuchus
Both The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals and the Paleobiology Database, the latter of which is edited by university professors, identify Chasmatosuchus as Chasmatosaurus, so these two articles should be merged as Chasmatosaurus. Jerkov 18:05, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Okay, forget all that. See Talk:Chasmatosuchus. Jerkov 11:44, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Merger with Proterosuchus?
This article currently states that Chasmatosaurus is synonymous with Proterosuchus. Do we have a reference for this? If so, is a redirect in order? Firsfron of Ronchester 02:29, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Taxonomy
The paleofile.com lists Chasmatosaurus as a synonym of Proterosuchus and not the other way around:

Genus: Proterosuchus BROOM, 1903 = Chasmatosaurus HAUGHTON, 1924 = Champsosaurus ROMER, 1971/COPE, 1887 (sic) = Elaphrosuchus BROOM, 1946 P. fergusi BROOM, 1903, CRUICKSHANK, 1970 (Type) = Chasmatosaurus vanhoepeni HAUGHTON, 1924 (Type) = Proterosuchus vanhoepeni (HAUGHTON, 1924) CRUICKSHANK, 1970 = Chasmatosaurus van Hoepeni HUENE, 1926 (sic) = Elaphrosuchus rubidgei BROOM, 1946 (per CRUICKSHANK, 1970) = Chasmatosaurus alexanderi HOFFMAN, 1965 P. yuani (YOUNG, 1936) CRUICKSHANK, 1970 = Chasmatosaurus yuani YOUNG, 1936 P. ultimus (YOUNG, 1964) CRUICKSHANK, 1970 = Chasmatosaurus ultimus YOUNG, 1964 = Chasmatosaurus yuani YOUNG, 1958 (partim)

BORSUK−BIAŁYNICKA and EVANS also name Proterosuchus as a valid genus in BORSUK−BIAŁYNICKA, M. and EVANS, S.E. A basal archosauriform from the Early Triassic of Poland Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 48 (4): 649-652 (2003), though here it is mentioned as Proterosuchus (Charig and Sues 1976). Elatrin (talk) 05:30, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Synonymy with Proterosuchus
I see that there has been a lot of confusion here on the validity of Chasmatosaurus. Chasmatosaurus is a junior synonym of Proterosuchus, with all species of Chasmatosaurus having been reassigned to Proterosuchus. According to Welman (1998), C. vanhoepeni and C. alexandri are junior synonyms of P. fergusi. C. yuani is now considered to be its own species of Proterosuchus, although I can't find out where this was first published. In the past, Chasmatosaurus was considered a subjective synonym, but now it is not. Therefore, I think this article should be redirected to Proterosuchus. If there's no objections, I'll go ahead and do so, and also add more information on taxonomy in the Proterosuchus article with some references. As it is, the Chasmatosaurus article talks mostly about general morphology and behavior, which can also apply to other proterosuchids.

Ref: Welman, J. (1998). "The Taxonomy of the South African Proterosuchids (Reptilia, Archosauromorpha)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18 (2): 340-347.

Smokeybjb (talk) 17:18, 19 February 2010 (UTC)