Hanyusuchus

Hanyusuchus is an extinct genus of gavialid crocodilian native to South China, containing a single species, Hanyusuchus sinensis. Reaching a total body length of , it shares characteristics of both tomistomines and derived gharials, such as a possibly sexually dimorphic vocal structure. Hanyusuchus is a recent Holocene taxon, living in southern China from at least the 4th millennium BC (during the Bronze Age) to as late as the 15th century AD, perhaps even later, when increased efforts of government culling and habitat destruction likely led to its extinction.

==Discovery and naming== Subfossils of Hanyusuchus were initially discovered between February 1963 and February 1980, with a total of six specimens, ranging from skulls to postcrania and osteoderms, being known. These, however, were dismissed as belonging to a modern genus and forgotten for the following years. Eventually, the bones were recognized as belonging to a unique genus and described as such by Masaya Iijima and colleagues in 2022. Hanyusuchus is named after Han Yu (768–824), a Chinese poet and government official active during the Tang dynasty. After a rash of crocodile attacks on humans and livestock, Han Yu issued a proclamation in which he instructed the crocodiles to leave the area or be killed. The second part of the name derives from the Greek soûkhos, meaning crocodile. The species name, "sinensis", is a commonly-used epithet in taxonomy meaning "from China".