in 1808 The
type species,
S. rostromajor, was only formally recognised as such in 2020, and this revision determined the
type specimen of
Steneosaurus was undiagnostic, and so declared the genus
Steneosaurus a
nomen dubium. The history of this specimen has been detailed in 2017. It was discovered in three pieces by abbot Charles Bacheley (1716-1795) in the Vaches Noires near Villers-sur-Mer (Calvados, France). Bacheley offered these pieces to Alexandre Besson (1725-1809) who had built up an important cabinet of fossils and minerals in Paris. Besson gave one of the pieces (the posterior portion) to Barthélémy Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741-1819), professor of geology in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris. Georges Cuvier first illustrated in 1808 the two anterior pieces of the specimen kept in the Besson collection and then figured the third piece (posterior portion from the Faujas de Saint-Fond collection) in 1824 in association with the anterior pieces (Besson collection) and other cranial remains belonging to Metriorhynchidae. The large skulls of two
marine crocodiles, about in length, were found in the
Chari Formation,
India and have been putatively identified as
Steneosaurus by Phansalkar et al. (1994). The remaining species referred to
Steneosaurus thus require new generic names, and some species have already been assigned to new genera prior to
Steneosaurus being declared a
nomen dubium. • '''Steneosaurus' brevior
= Mystriosaurus'' • '''Steneosaurus' deslongchampsianus'' • '''Steneosaurus' edwardsi
= Neosteneosaurus'' • '''Steneosaurus' gracilirostris
= Plagiophthalmosuchus'' • '''Steneosaurus' heberti
= Proexochokefalos'' • '''Steneosaurus' larteti
= Deslongchampsina'' • '''Steneosaurus' megistorhynchus
= Seldsienean'' • '''Steneosaurus' obtusidens
= Lemmysuchus'' == Classification ==