Spinosuchus (meaning "spined crocodile") is an extinct genus of trilophosaurid allokotosaur from the Late Triassic of Texas, southern United States.
However, newly collected material and recent phylogenetic studies of early archosauromorphs suggest that it represents an advanced trilophosaurid very closely related to Trilophosaurus.
[1][2] In 1922, Ermine Cowles Case described a partial vertebral column (UMMP 7507) he'd discovered in 1921 from the Tecovas Member of the Carnian-age Upper Triassic Dockum Formation of Crosby County, Texas, as Coelophysis sp.
[4] These additional remains have since been recognized as belonging to a variety of other Triassic animals, all of which were poorly known or unknown at the time: the femur to an aetosaur, possibly Desmatosuchus,[5] the ilium to a herrerasaurid, either Chindesaurus or Caseosaurus, depending on the taxonomic authority,[6] and the basicranium to the rauisuchian Postosuchus.
[12][13] Further review, as part of a larger series of papers on the evolution of dinosaurs in the Late Triassic by Sterling Nesbitt, Randall Irmis, and William Parker, found Spinosuchus to be a valid genus.