Rukwasuchus is an extinct genus of peirosaurid crocodyliforms known from the middle Cretaceous Galula Formation of southwestern Tanzania.
[1] Rukwasuchus is known from its holotype, RRBP 08630, a well-preserved rear part of the skull including the cranial table, braincase, and interorbital region lacking the rostrum, the front portion of the palate, both lacrimals, jugals, and quadratojugals, as well as the mandible.
All specimens came from approximately 25 km south of Lake Rukwa in the Galula Study Area, Rukwa Rift Basin of southwestern Tanzania, belonging to the Namba Member of the Galula Formation which dates to the late Aptian or possibly early Cenomanian stage of the middle Cretaceous, approximately 100 mya.
These include the presence of a mediolaterally narrow, elongate, and septate internal narial fenestra located anteriorly on the pterygoid, the presence of a markedly depressed posterior border of the parietal that excludes the supraoccipital from the dorsal cranial table, and a ventrally directed descending process of the postorbital with a well-developed posteroventral process.
[1] A phylogenetic analysis of Crocodyliformes supports a close relationship between Rukwasuchus and other African members of Trematochampsidae, e.g. Hamadasuchus and Trematochampsa, that is positioned within a larger clade of Gondwanan peirosaurids.