todays bird
DEAR READER
ojovivo
art blog(derogatory)
Kiana Khansmith
Not today Justin
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Keni
⁂
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
No title available
blake kathryn
Sade Olutola
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
we're not kids anymore.
izzy's playlists!
Janaina Medeiros
Origami Around
taylor price
tannertan36
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from Ireland
seen from Türkiye
seen from Sweden
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from Argentina
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Spain
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
@arminreindl
I promise I'm working on more longer posts on crocs in the back (Enalioetes, Quinkana and Mekosuchinae as a whole) Until then, have some videos/images of various crocodilians scratching themselves.
Saltwater crocodile (Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary)
False Gharial (LA Zoo)
American Alligator (Florida's Wildest)
and finally another saltie as a still image (The Cairns Post)
Fossil Crocs of 2025
Well, well well, look who comes crawling out of the woodwork again after having failed to live up to any promise I made earlier last year.
In my defense, tho my love for crocs continue, I suffered several hits to my motivation not to mention plenty of work both at my job and private life including a complete revision of the clade Itasuchidae on Wikipedia (currently 8 out of 13 pages in).
But I'm taking a brief moment to try and bring back at least a summary of all the new taxa we got last year.
Taihangosuchus Our chronologically oldest animal on this little list is Taihangosuchus from the Anisian (Middle Triassic ) Ermaying Formation. Fittingly this little is also part of one of the most ancient pseudosuchian linages, the gracilisuchids, small, erect-limbed quadrupeds, which it feels have been getting a lot more attention as of late. Two specimens are known, one smaller preserving the head and neck, one larger that exclusively preserves postcrania. The larger furthermore shows at least parts of the animals last meal in the form of several osteoderms in the gut, indicating that this animal was not just predatory but seemingly fed on other archosaurs. Which one is unclear. Shansisuchus had no osteoderms, Halazhaisuchus is from the lower parts of the formation, Fenhosuchus is a candidate, as most osteoderms from Ermaying have historically been referred to it but its just as possible that the victim was a smaller individual of Taihangosuchus.
Tainrakuasuchus Poposauroids keep on winning as of late, at least as far as basal forms are concerned. Tainrakuasuchus bellator (roughly meaning "pointed tooth warrior crocodile") may be one of the most basal poposauroids, having been recovered as a close relative of Mandasuchus and more derived than either Benggwigwishingasuchus or Mambawakale. At a size of roughly 2.4 meters (give or take) and specimens estimated at 3 meters it would have been a sizable predator of the Dinodontosaurus AZ, which is well known for an already diverse croc fauna. Size alone demands it to fill a different nische from behemoths like Prestosuchus, but also as a poposauroid the neck vertebrae weren't built to deal with the same immense stresses anyways, so one way or another different prey was required.
Telkaralura From a poposauroid back to another gracilisuchid, this time from the Carnian of South America. Telkaralura is one of those taxa that have a surprisingly long history for something only really described recently. It was first discovered by famed paleontologist José F. Bonaparte in 1980 in the same rock layers as Gracilisuchus and both were for a time regarded to be early dinosaurs. It was briefly regarded as a juvenile Luperosuchus in 2009, split off in 2017 and finally given a name in 2025.
Telkaralura is notable for being the largest gracilisuchid known today, some 20 to 25% larger than the next largest members of the group including the recently named Parvosuchus, twice the size of Gracilisuchus and five times the size of Maehary (previously thought to be basal to pterosaurs, fun fact). But even that wasn't enough to make it top predator, which is an honor that goes to the proterochampsid Gualosuchus.
Olkasuchus AN AETOSAUR KNOWN FROM MORE THAN JUST A HANDFULL OF ISOLATED OSTEODERMS?! Yes, Olkasuchus was a pleasent surprise, which makes me all the more disappointed in myself that I have yet to find the time to write about it on wikipedia. So this will need to suffice for the time being (I mean sooner or later I gotta give that whole clade an overhaul anyways, no?) Olkasuchus is known from the Late Triassic (Norian) Los Colorados Formation, famous for its enormous "prosauropods" and titanic rauisuchian Fasolasuchus. This basal desmatosuchine is however not nearly as big, for reference the scalebar in the image below is 20 centimeters.
Pattisaura Early pseudosuchians sure loved the small and gracile morphotype, but we're not dealing with a gracilisuchid this time. Pattisaura is an early crocodylomorph, part of the grade frequently referred to as "sphenosuchians".
As an inhabitant of the Cooper Canyon Formation Pattisaura lived around many other famous stem-crocs including Postosuchus, Shuvosaurus and Desmatosuchus. And with a fauna like that you can nicely see just how diverse early pseudosuchians were, covering large predators, gracile bipeds, armored quadrupeds and of course smaller, almost dog-like forms like Pattisaura.
Kuttysuchus Now that's more like what I'm used to with aetosaurs: OSTEODERMS AND NOTHING ELSE. Perhaps the most shocking developement of having had to deal with these over the past few years is that I'm getting scarily comfortable with how these isolated bony plates are described, but I won't make you suffer through that.
So I'll keep this one at the key points. Kuttysuchus is a new typothoracine from the Norian to Rhaetian of India. It coexisted with mystriosuchine phytosaurs, early sauropodomorphs and two other aetosaurs, an as of yet unnamed desmatosuchine and Venkatasuchus, which you might remember (or not, I won't blame you). Excuse me for being a little glib, but with so many crocs its hard to really sell something thats known from a handfull of bony plates without giving info thats super generalized to the group as a whole.
And with that we finish the Triassic and actually jump straight to the Cretaceous. Yup, no Jurassic taxa for you.
Paarthurnax Yes, like the dragon from Skyrim. While this 4 meter animal from the middle Cretaceous appears similar to modern crocodiles, its actually part of the older family Goniopholididae, and one that actually proves to be quite informative at that.
The thing with Goniopholidids is that they were most successfull during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, filling the crocodilian nische throughout North America, Europe and Asia prior to Eusuchians making it big. But we knew even before 2025 that goniopholidids didn't go out without a fight and in fact made it until the Maastrichtian in the form of Denazinosuchus. This of course left a massive gap in time we didn't quite know how to fill. But the discovery of Paarthurnax allowed Platt and co to create a neat line from early Cretaceous European goniopholidids like Anteophthalmosuchus all the way to Denazinosuchus in America, briding the gap with Paarthurnax, Paluxysuchus and Deltasuchus. Will this hypothesis hold? Only time will tell.
Sissokosuchus Remember me mentioning itasuchids at the beginning? Well in 2025 we got two of those. The first I want to talk about is the one that I am still relatively satisfied with as far as the Wikipedia page goes.
Sissokosuchus maliensis (Famory Sissoko's crocodile from Mali) is known from multiple specimens, none of which especially complete sadly, found within the poorly defined Continental intercalaire of Mali, which date to the Aptian and Albian. At that point in time Mali cotained part of what was once an enormous ancient river system, the Paleo-Tegama, perfect for anything that loved freshwater.
This included Sissokosuchus, which, despite looking suspiciously like a normal crocodile, was actually part of an off-shoot of the otherwise famously terrestrial notosuchians. Itasuchids in general are quite a fascinating group in that regard, ranging from more robust types like Barreirosuchus to slender-snouted animals such as Stolokrosuchus. But more on that some other time.
Thikarisuchus Now for something entirely different, Thikarisuchus xenodens (strange-toothed sheath crocodile). Small, terrestrial, long and slender limbs and actually closer to modern crocodiles than either of our previous two newcommers.
This adorable little guy from the Cenomanian Blackleaf Formation is a wannchampsid, close kin to the similarily gracile and terrestrial atoposaurids. What makes Thikarisuchus interesting is the fact that it had three different tooth types (hence the name), ranging from pointed and conical to mediolaterally flat and very low-crowned. This likely reflects a broad diet that could have included insects, small animals and even plants. The front teeth would be used to grab food items, the cheek teeth served to slice.
Thilastikosuchus Staying with the nimble, terrestrial genre of crocodylomorphs for a bit takes us across the sea into South America to meet Thilastikosuchus scutorectangularis (Mammal crocodile with rectangular osteoderms), a notosuchian of the family Candidodontidae.
Candidodontids are perhaps the most obscure family of notosuchian to an outsider, perhaps even more obscure than itasuchids, and similarily its partially because we're still only just beginning to understand them (fun fact, Malawisuchus, another candidodontid, was actually among the first two taxa assigned to Itasuchidae alongside Itasuchus itself, tho the family has changed drastically since then).
Like Thikarisuchus, Thilastikosuchus is noted for its teeth. Two types of teeth are known from this animal, subconical incisors in the front of the jaw and molariform teeth in the back, but no canines, despite the fact that they are present in other notosuchians incleading some fellow candidodontids. But while the posterior teeth of Thikarisuchus are also different, Thilastikosuchus goes a step beyond, its teeth being and well mammal-like.
Ibirasuchus Oh boy....well, this is our second itasuchid of 2025 and its beyond the shadow of a doubt worse than Sissokosuchus. I'll be honest I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on it. It was named in a broader paper describing various fossils and the only things known of Ibirasuchus are admittedly most of a parietal and supraoccipital and a tiny corner of a squamosal... yeah its not even half a skull table. The paper does propose a possible length of four meters, but problematically itasuchid postcrania are barely described and my current plans are to start reconstructing them once I've got the writing down. Will this animals Wikipedia page get another overhaul beyond my initial script, yes, will it be significantly better, well, theres only so much I can work with.
Wadisuchus Moving on to something a lot more pleasent, we have Wadisuchus kassabi (Kassab's Valley Crocodile), known from two fairly complete skulls that were found in the sediments of the Campanian Quseir Formation.
The animal, which may have grown as long as 4 meters, is among the oldest known dyrosaurids, a group closely related to pholidosaurids like Sarcosuchus and that held out until the Eocene. Given its basal position its unsurprising that Wadisuchus displays a mix of derived dyrosaurid and more basal pholidosaurid features. For example pholidosaurids have a famously hooked snout tip, which is absent in dyrosaurids. Well in Wadisuchus we see a mix, with the first teeth strongly downturned and the rest positioned normally, which may be related to the way the lower jaw grew longer throughout this groups evolutionary history.
Kostensuchus A Kostensuchus, how excited I was when you dropped. And rightfully so, its not every day you get a 3 meter terrestrial behemoth of a notosuchian known from a complete skull and almost the entire vertebral collumn up to the hip. What makes this animal even more fascinating is the fact that tho superficially similar to baurusuchids, its actually a peirosaur.
The fact that there is a whole distinct clade of robust peirosaurids actually lead to an interesting hypothesis. Novas and colleagues speculate that South America may have been split into two distinct predator faunal zones. In the northern parts, i.e. Brazil's Bauru Group, the top predators were abelisaurs and baurusuchids, while the south their rolle may have been filled by megaraptorans and peirosaurids. Here's hoping we find more to support this idea because I for one love it.
Animation by PALEOGDY
Tewkensuchus Tewkensuchus in some aspects is not all that different from Kostensuchus. The "forehead crocodile", tho known from rather limited material, was likely a robust, terrestrial animal that stalked what is now Argentina during the earliest days of the Paleogene.
And that's where things get interesting. With an estimated weight of 300 kg this sebecoid is exceptionally large for its time, which has prompted researchers to question how that came to be. The two main explanations are as follows. 1. Sebecoids have been as large as this since before the meteor whiped out the dinosaurs and underwent a brief aquatic phase that allowed them to stay in this range without being annihilated as the purely terrestrial fauna was (a method employed by the ancestors of our modern crocs) 2. These guys were small prior to the impact and, somehow, got absolutely fucking jacked the second theropods were out of the picture.
A final note, despite being from almost southernmost South America, Tewkensuchus appears to have actually been more closely related to Eocene European sebecoids like Bergisuchus and Dentaneosuchus rather than the geographically closer proper sebecids. This whole paleogeography continues to be a headache let me tell you that.
Paleoart by Michael Tripoli
Pseudogavialis Pseudogavialis is a classic case of authors trying to make sense of something thats been an issue we've had for hundreds of years. In this case the fact that Oligocene to Miocene Pakistani gavialoids are a mess. Several species were coined in the 1800s and have repeatedly been lumped, split, lumped again. Courville and colleagues published an extensive paper on some of them, including "Gavialis" curvirostris. Their conclusion: the animal is clearly distinct and it was given the new name Pseudogavialis. It was probably close to todays Indian gharial, may have featured a similar soft tissue bulb on its snout and grew to a length of 6 to 7 meters.
Rhamphosuchus brevirostris Ok one could argue this ones a bit of a cheat because obviously Rhamphosuchus has been well established for over a hundred years and the species is similarily old. However, given that we weren't even sure brevirostris was legit and its now been redescribed and pretty firmly placed in the genus Rhamphosuchus I'll include it here.
The same paper I just mentioned in regards to Pseudogavialis also touched on "Gavialis" pachyrhynchus. Unlike Pseudogavialis it was not separated on a genus level, but instead sunk into Rhamphosuchus as you already know.
Now Rhamphosuchus pachyrhynchus is notably more robust than Pseudogavialis, but not quite as much as the still poorly known Rhamphosuchus crassidens. It had more of an overbite rather than the interlocking teeth seen in modern gharials and crocs, may have grown to 8 meters in length and we still don't really know how these guys related to other gavialoids really.
This whole paper did inspire me to give the Wikipedia page for Rhamphosuchus a complete overhaul tho and despite the scarcity of proper descriptions I'm actually still quite happy with it.
Piscogavialis laberintoensis Our third and final gavialoid for 2025 is yet another species of an established genus, this time all the way over in Peru. Piscogavialis laberintoensis is known from the Miocene Laberinto area of the Pisco Formation (keep an eye open for the upcoming formation piece by Joschua Knüppe). As in the type species, the snout of Piscogavialis laberintoensis is very long and narrow, but the transition between the snout and orbital region is a lot more abrupt and not as fluid. And of course as its relative, this species was a marine animal. Body length has been estimated to range from 5.4 to 6.2 meters.
Crocodylus sudani The geologically youngest new fossil crocodile of last year takes us to Sudan, hence its name, specifically to the 60.000 year old rocks found near the Atbara River, one of the tributaries of the Nile. Theres several fascinating things to mention for this species. Morphologically for example it combines both the presence of a pronounced boss before the eyes with upturned squamosal horns. Evolutionarily, despite being as young as it is, Crocodylus sudani is not closely related to todays Nile or Sacred crocodiles but may actually be part of the Paleoafrican Crocodylus species, which includes the enormous Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni. Perhaps one of the more out there claims by the authors is the idea that maybe, just maybe, this species is still out there.... Now granted, modern crocs are more diverse than we give them credit for and many a crypic species is still likely hidden out there, only distinguished by subtle features, differences in the genome and hidden by harsh and inaccessible environments. However as Salih and co. themselves admitt, its gonna require some substantial research into modern Sudanese crocodile populations to proof that this is more than just wishfull thinking.
Artwork again by Michael Tripoli
And thats the fossil crocs that were described last year. Lesson learned, I gotta stop making promises that I can't keep, but hopefully next years batch will be less work intensive and not be posted 4 months into 2027.
pdfs just seem to spawn in my downloads folder with no warning
no I definitely do not remember downloading "Descriptions of the Specimens of Inferior Maxillary Bones of Mastodons in the Cabinet of the American Philosophical Society, with Remarks on the Genus Tetracaulodon (Godman), &c." where did you come from
i guess i am a parent now. very well. i shall love this pdf like one of my own
honestly my experiences with PDFs is that half I started to neatly sort onto a drive before given up and the other half sits in my download folder, sometimes multiple times, a lot of them with catchy names ranging from "admin,+Journal+manager,+2-Ciências_LATE+CRETACEOUS+TETRAPODS+_Ciências (1)" to "BF02988368"
Galahadosuchus jonesi was a small early crocodylomorph that lived during the late Triassic of what is now southwest England, around 215 million years ago.
About 60cm long (~2'), it had a fully upright quadrupedal posture, slender digitigrade limbs, a long tail, and a paired row of interlocking osteoderms running along its back.
Its habitat at the time was part of an archipelago of small tropical islands, in a forested karst environment full of sinkholes and caves. It would have been a fast and agile runner, and like its close relative Terrestrisuchus it was probably a generalist pursuit predator feeding on prey such as invertebrates and smaller reptiles.
———
NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon
Galahadosuchus jonesi was a small early crocodylomorph that lived during the late Triassic of what is now southwest England, around 215 million years ago.
About 60cm long (~2'), it had a fully upright quadrupedal posture, slender digitigrade limbs, a long tail, and a paired row of interlocking osteoderms running along its back.
Its habitat at the time was part of an archipelago of small tropical islands, in a forested karst environment full of sinkholes and caves. It would have been a fast and agile runner, and like its close relative Terrestrisuchus it was probably a generalist pursuit predator feeding on prey such as invertebrates and smaller reptiles.
———
NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon
Fossil Crocs of 2025
Well, well well, look who comes crawling out of the woodwork again after having failed to live up to any promise I made earlier last year.
In my defense, tho my love for crocs continue, I suffered several hits to my motivation not to mention plenty of work both at my job and private life including a complete revision of the clade Itasuchidae on Wikipedia (currently 8 out of 13 pages in).
But I'm taking a brief moment to try and bring back at least a summary of all the new taxa we got last year.
Taihangosuchus Our chronologically oldest animal on this little list is Taihangosuchus from the Anisian (Middle Triassic ) Ermaying Formation. Fittingly this little is also part of one of the most ancient pseudosuchian linages, the gracilisuchids, small, erect-limbed quadrupeds, which it feels have been getting a lot more attention as of late. Two specimens are known, one smaller preserving the head and neck, one larger that exclusively preserves postcrania. The larger furthermore shows at least parts of the animals last meal in the form of several osteoderms in the gut, indicating that this animal was not just predatory but seemingly fed on other archosaurs. Which one is unclear. Shansisuchus had no osteoderms, Halazhaisuchus is from the lower parts of the formation, Fenhosuchus is a candidate, as most osteoderms from Ermaying have historically been referred to it but its just as possible that the victim was a smaller individual of Taihangosuchus.
Tainrakuasuchus Poposauroids keep on winning as of late, at least as far as basal forms are concerned. Tainrakuasuchus bellator (roughly meaning "pointed tooth warrior crocodile") may be one of the most basal poposauroids, having been recovered as a close relative of Mandasuchus and more derived than either Benggwigwishingasuchus or Mambawakale. At a size of roughly 2.4 meters (give or take) and specimens estimated at 3 meters it would have been a sizable predator of the Dinodontosaurus AZ, which is well known for an already diverse croc fauna. Size alone demands it to fill a different nische from behemoths like Prestosuchus, but also as a poposauroid the neck vertebrae weren't built to deal with the same immense stresses anyways, so one way or another different prey was required.
Telkaralura From a poposauroid back to another gracilisuchid, this time from the Carnian of South America. Telkaralura is one of those taxa that have a surprisingly long history for something only really described recently. It was first discovered by famed paleontologist José F. Bonaparte in 1980 in the same rock layers as Gracilisuchus and both were for a time regarded to be early dinosaurs. It was briefly regarded as a juvenile Luperosuchus in 2009, split off in 2017 and finally given a name in 2025.
Telkaralura is notable for being the largest gracilisuchid known today, some 20 to 25% larger than the next largest members of the group including the recently named Parvosuchus, twice the size of Gracilisuchus and five times the size of Maehary (previously thought to be basal to pterosaurs, fun fact). But even that wasn't enough to make it top predator, which is an honor that goes to the proterochampsid Gualosuchus.
Olkasuchus AN AETOSAUR KNOWN FROM MORE THAN JUST A HANDFULL OF ISOLATED OSTEODERMS?! Yes, Olkasuchus was a pleasent surprise, which makes me all the more disappointed in myself that I have yet to find the time to write about it on wikipedia. So this will need to suffice for the time being (I mean sooner or later I gotta give that whole clade an overhaul anyways, no?) Olkasuchus is known from the Late Triassic (Norian) Los Colorados Formation, famous for its enormous "prosauropods" and titanic rauisuchian Fasolasuchus. This basal desmatosuchine is however not nearly as big, for reference the scalebar in the image below is 20 centimeters.
Pattisaura Early pseudosuchians sure loved the small and gracile morphotype, but we're not dealing with a gracilisuchid this time. Pattisaura is an early crocodylomorph, part of the grade frequently referred to as "sphenosuchians".
As an inhabitant of the Cooper Canyon Formation Pattisaura lived around many other famous stem-crocs including Postosuchus, Shuvosaurus and Desmatosuchus. And with a fauna like that you can nicely see just how diverse early pseudosuchians were, covering large predators, gracile bipeds, armored quadrupeds and of course smaller, almost dog-like forms like Pattisaura.
Kuttysuchus Now that's more like what I'm used to with aetosaurs: OSTEODERMS AND NOTHING ELSE. Perhaps the most shocking developement of having had to deal with these over the past few years is that I'm getting scarily comfortable with how these isolated bony plates are described, but I won't make you suffer through that.
So I'll keep this one at the key points. Kuttysuchus is a new typothoracine from the Norian to Rhaetian of India. It coexisted with mystriosuchine phytosaurs, early sauropodomorphs and two other aetosaurs, an as of yet unnamed desmatosuchine and Venkatasuchus, which you might remember (or not, I won't blame you). Excuse me for being a little glib, but with so many crocs its hard to really sell something thats known from a handfull of bony plates without giving info thats super generalized to the group as a whole.
And with that we finish the Triassic and actually jump straight to the Cretaceous. Yup, no Jurassic taxa for you.
Paarthurnax Yes, like the dragon from Skyrim. While this 4 meter animal from the middle Cretaceous appears similar to modern crocodiles, its actually part of the older family Goniopholididae, and one that actually proves to be quite informative at that.
The thing with Goniopholidids is that they were most successfull during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, filling the crocodilian nische throughout North America, Europe and Asia prior to Eusuchians making it big. But we knew even before 2025 that goniopholidids didn't go out without a fight and in fact made it until the Maastrichtian in the form of Denazinosuchus. This of course left a massive gap in time we didn't quite know how to fill. But the discovery of Paarthurnax allowed Platt and co to create a neat line from early Cretaceous European goniopholidids like Anteophthalmosuchus all the way to Denazinosuchus in America, briding the gap with Paarthurnax, Paluxysuchus and Deltasuchus. Will this hypothesis hold? Only time will tell.
Sissokosuchus Remember me mentioning itasuchids at the beginning? Well in 2025 we got two of those. The first I want to talk about is the one that I am still relatively satisfied with as far as the Wikipedia page goes.
Sissokosuchus maliensis (Famory Sissoko's crocodile from Mali) is known from multiple specimens, none of which especially complete sadly, found within the poorly defined Continental intercalaire of Mali, which date to the Aptian and Albian. At that point in time Mali cotained part of what was once an enormous ancient river system, the Paleo-Tegama, perfect for anything that loved freshwater.
This included Sissokosuchus, which, despite looking suspiciously like a normal crocodile, was actually part of an off-shoot of the otherwise famously terrestrial notosuchians. Itasuchids in general are quite a fascinating group in that regard, ranging from more robust types like Barreirosuchus to slender-snouted animals such as Stolokrosuchus. But more on that some other time.
Thikarisuchus Now for something entirely different, Thikarisuchus xenodens (strange-toothed sheath crocodile). Small, terrestrial, long and slender limbs and actually closer to modern crocodiles than either of our previous two newcommers.
This adorable little guy from the Cenomanian Blackleaf Formation is a wannchampsid, close kin to the similarily gracile and terrestrial atoposaurids. What makes Thikarisuchus interesting is the fact that it had three different tooth types (hence the name), ranging from pointed and conical to mediolaterally flat and very low-crowned. This likely reflects a broad diet that could have included insects, small animals and even plants. The front teeth would be used to grab food items, the cheek teeth served to slice.
Thilastikosuchus Staying with the nimble, terrestrial genre of crocodylomorphs for a bit takes us across the sea into South America to meet Thilastikosuchus scutorectangularis (Mammal crocodile with rectangular osteoderms), a notosuchian of the family Candidodontidae.
Candidodontids are perhaps the most obscure family of notosuchian to an outsider, perhaps even more obscure than itasuchids, and similarily its partially because we're still only just beginning to understand them (fun fact, Malawisuchus, another candidodontid, was actually among the first two taxa assigned to Itasuchidae alongside Itasuchus itself, tho the family has changed drastically since then).
Like Thikarisuchus, Thilastikosuchus is noted for its teeth. Two types of teeth are known from this animal, subconical incisors in the front of the jaw and molariform teeth in the back, but no canines, despite the fact that they are present in other notosuchians incleading some fellow candidodontids. But while the posterior teeth of Thikarisuchus are also different, Thilastikosuchus goes a step beyond, its teeth being and well mammal-like.
Ibirasuchus Oh boy....well, this is our second itasuchid of 2025 and its beyond the shadow of a doubt worse than Sissokosuchus. I'll be honest I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on it. It was named in a broader paper describing various fossils and the only things known of Ibirasuchus are admittedly most of a parietal and supraoccipital and a tiny corner of a squamosal... yeah its not even half a skull table. The paper does propose a possible length of four meters, but problematically itasuchid postcrania are barely described and my current plans are to start reconstructing them once I've got the writing down. Will this animals Wikipedia page get another overhaul beyond my initial script, yes, will it be significantly better, well, theres only so much I can work with.
Wadisuchus Moving on to something a lot more pleasent, we have Wadisuchus kassabi (Kassab's Valley Crocodile), known from two fairly complete skulls that were found in the sediments of the Campanian Quseir Formation.
The animal, which may have grown as long as 4 meters, is among the oldest known dyrosaurids, a group closely related to pholidosaurids like Sarcosuchus and that held out until the Eocene. Given its basal position its unsurprising that Wadisuchus displays a mix of derived dyrosaurid and more basal pholidosaurid features. For example pholidosaurids have a famously hooked snout tip, which is absent in dyrosaurids. Well in Wadisuchus we see a mix, with the first teeth strongly downturned and the rest positioned normally, which may be related to the way the lower jaw grew longer throughout this groups evolutionary history.
Kostensuchus A Kostensuchus, how excited I was when you dropped. And rightfully so, its not every day you get a 3 meter terrestrial behemoth of a notosuchian known from a complete skull and almost the entire vertebral collumn up to the hip. What makes this animal even more fascinating is the fact that tho superficially similar to baurusuchids, its actually a peirosaur.
The fact that there is a whole distinct clade of robust peirosaurids actually lead to an interesting hypothesis. Novas and colleagues speculate that South America may have been split into two distinct predator faunal zones. In the northern parts, i.e. Brazil's Bauru Group, the top predators were abelisaurs and baurusuchids, while the south their rolle may have been filled by megaraptorans and peirosaurids. Here's hoping we find more to support this idea because I for one love it.
Animation by PALEOGDY
Tewkensuchus Tewkensuchus in some aspects is not all that different from Kostensuchus. The "forehead crocodile", tho known from rather limited material, was likely a robust, terrestrial animal that stalked what is now Argentina during the earliest days of the Paleogene.
And that's where things get interesting. With an estimated weight of 300 kg this sebecoid is exceptionally large for its time, which has prompted researchers to question how that came to be. The two main explanations are as follows. 1. Sebecoids have been as large as this since before the meteor whiped out the dinosaurs and underwent a brief aquatic phase that allowed them to stay in this range without being annihilated as the purely terrestrial fauna was (a method employed by the ancestors of our modern crocs) 2. These guys were small prior to the impact and, somehow, got absolutely fucking jacked the second theropods were out of the picture.
A final note, despite being from almost southernmost South America, Tewkensuchus appears to have actually been more closely related to Eocene European sebecoids like Bergisuchus and Dentaneosuchus rather than the geographically closer proper sebecids. This whole paleogeography continues to be a headache let me tell you that.
Paleoart by Michael Tripoli
Pseudogavialis Pseudogavialis is a classic case of authors trying to make sense of something thats been an issue we've had for hundreds of years. In this case the fact that Oligocene to Miocene Pakistani gavialoids are a mess. Several species were coined in the 1800s and have repeatedly been lumped, split, lumped again. Courville and colleagues published an extensive paper on some of them, including "Gavialis" curvirostris. Their conclusion: the animal is clearly distinct and it was given the new name Pseudogavialis. It was probably close to todays Indian gharial, may have featured a similar soft tissue bulb on its snout and grew to a length of 6 to 7 meters.
Rhamphosuchus brevirostris Ok one could argue this ones a bit of a cheat because obviously Rhamphosuchus has been well established for over a hundred years and the species is similarily old. However, given that we weren't even sure brevirostris was legit and its now been redescribed and pretty firmly placed in the genus Rhamphosuchus I'll include it here.
The same paper I just mentioned in regards to Pseudogavialis also touched on "Gavialis" pachyrhynchus. Unlike Pseudogavialis it was not separated on a genus level, but instead sunk into Rhamphosuchus as you already know.
Now Rhamphosuchus pachyrhynchus is notably more robust than Pseudogavialis, but not quite as much as the still poorly known Rhamphosuchus crassidens. It had more of an overbite rather than the interlocking teeth seen in modern gharials and crocs, may have grown to 8 meters in length and we still don't really know how these guys related to other gavialoids really.
This whole paper did inspire me to give the Wikipedia page for Rhamphosuchus a complete overhaul tho and despite the scarcity of proper descriptions I'm actually still quite happy with it.
Piscogavialis laberintoensis Our third and final gavialoid for 2025 is yet another species of an established genus, this time all the way over in Peru. Piscogavialis laberintoensis is known from the Miocene Laberinto area of the Pisco Formation (keep an eye open for the upcoming formation piece by Joschua Knüppe). As in the type species, the snout of Piscogavialis laberintoensis is very long and narrow, but the transition between the snout and orbital region is a lot more abrupt and not as fluid. And of course as its relative, this species was a marine animal. Body length has been estimated to range from 5.4 to 6.2 meters.
Crocodylus sudani The geologically youngest new fossil crocodile of last year takes us to Sudan, hence its name, specifically to the 60.000 year old rocks found near the Atbara River, one of the tributaries of the Nile. Theres several fascinating things to mention for this species. Morphologically for example it combines both the presence of a pronounced boss before the eyes with upturned squamosal horns. Evolutionarily, despite being as young as it is, Crocodylus sudani is not closely related to todays Nile or Sacred crocodiles but may actually be part of the Paleoafrican Crocodylus species, which includes the enormous Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni. Perhaps one of the more out there claims by the authors is the idea that maybe, just maybe, this species is still out there.... Now granted, modern crocs are more diverse than we give them credit for and many a crypic species is still likely hidden out there, only distinguished by subtle features, differences in the genome and hidden by harsh and inaccessible environments. However as Salih and co. themselves admitt, its gonna require some substantial research into modern Sudanese crocodile populations to proof that this is more than just wishfull thinking.
Artwork again by Michael Tripoli
And thats the fossil crocs that were described last year. Lesson learned, I gotta stop making promises that I can't keep, but hopefully next years batch will be less work intensive and not be posted 4 months into 2027.
Damn, I can never remember the name of that new dinosaur...
beautiful, just beautiful
Non-croc post for a change of pace Since it came up in a conversation I ended up googling if the rhinos in the Salzburg Zoo get out in Winter and not only do they, it also makes for some impressive photos Images by Manuel Bukovics
Since people seem to pick up on the Pleistocene vibes here's some more photos during the summer, featuring the Untersberg mountain in the distance.
Photos by Emanuel Hasenauer and Zoo Salzburg
Non-croc post for a change of pace Since it came up in a conversation I ended up googling if the rhinos in the Salzburg Zoo get out in Winter and not only do they, it also makes for some impressive photos Images by Manuel Bukovics
The Crocodiles of the Pleistocene
A few weeks ago Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age released to a overall positive reception, but alas, as so often the case, my favourite group of animals was shafted. But this won't stop me from providing an overview of what was around.
Let me prefice this by saying that I of course understand their absence, obviously more unique fauna takes priority and I don't begrudge the team their choice. I also want to highlight that I'm just pulling from the entire Pleistocene, rather than just the ice age proper.
Shout out to Joschua Knüppe's fantastic "Giants Among Us" poster, featuring (most) Pleistocene fossil crocodiles Go buy it NOW
Lets start with one that's perhaps the least interesting but easiest to cast: Alligator hailensis. By all accounts, hailensis is not too different from modern gators, being closely related, similarily proportioned and reaching a similar length. Obviously that makes its inclusion the least vital but the easiest. Insert some shots of a modern gator (easy enough to come by) and just pretend its hailensis. Especially as filler along more exciting animals like short faced bears, Xenosmilus, sloths, elephants, etc...
And that's it for North America already. Turns out glaciation is not especially conductive for croc diversity. Thing's aren't looking much better for South America either. Joschua's poster features Caiman venezuelensis, found at the El Breal de Orocual tar pit. But the validity of this species has been questioned. It's known from fragmentary remains and may instead just be a spectacled caiman as we know them today. It does share some similarities with the Rio Apaporis caiman, which is a whole other can of worms (ignore the fraud in the photo).
On the note of C. venezuelensis, I'll also briefly bring up "Crocodylus caiari", which even I was unfamiliar with until earlier this year. Alas, tho a well preserved animal possibly close to modern Orinoco crocs, its a nomen nudum as its never been formally published.
To compensate for the lack of described and distinct fossil crocs from the Americas, I'll give a quick shout out to Cuban crocodiles, which used to be far more wide ranging during the Ice Age and would have come into contact with (and hunted) island ground sloths.
Turning attention towards Africa offers much better studied options. Two of the most well known are probably the Paleoafrican crocodiles of East Africa, Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni and Crocodylus anthropophagus, both of which would have been in immediate contact with early humans. C. thorbjarnarsoni may have reached sizes larger than even the largest modern saltwater crocodiles. Brochu and Storrs even half jokingly suggest that the reason theres no direct evidence for human predation in Kenya is because it would just swallow early humans whole.
Further north then you would find Crocodylus sudani, perhaps a golden opportunity to address how the Sahara wasn't always an enormous desert. Anatomically this one is considerably smaller than our previous two mentions, but does combine a rostral boss with squamosal horns.
As far as the African mainland is concerned I saved best for last: Euthecodon This one might look like a gharial, but its actually a relic of a time when "dwarf crocodiles" were much more diverse. Long snouted with strange, sleeved teeth and oh yeah probably quite large.
Before moving on theres two more island species to cover. Over on the Seychelles there's Aldabrachampsus, a small species with cute little horns above the ears. It may have fed on or at least scavenged on the island's giant tortoises.
And if you like the "cat ears" then look no further than Voay over on Madagascar. The island is already featured so perhaps there was at one point discussion, but alas. Anyways, Voay is probably the most famous croc with enlarged horns and perhaps the one with the largest. Voay was the one I had more hope for than most the others and I do think it could still work with what we got, but theres a lot of other stuff they could have done with Madagascar, from giant lemurs to the various native hippos.
In Asia we're getting three for the price of one with Toyotamaphimeia and Hanyusuchus, the former featuring two species native to Japan and Taiwan respectively while Hanyusuchus inhabited the Chinese south-east until the 14th century. I will concede that Hanyusuchus is probably most interesting in its recent history and its relationship with advanced human civilisations, while Toyotamaphimeia taiwanicus is rather incomplete.
Toyotampahimeia machikanensis from Japan meanwhile is ideal. 6 to 7 meters long, quite robust, its close kin are interpreted as possibly having been quite vocal and capable of taking down horses and other livestock. It lived at the edge of what crocs can tolerate in terms of cold, shows evidence of fighting others of its kind, etc...
If we wanna talk more generalized crocs we got Crocodylus palaeindicus, close kin to today's Mugger crocodiles, in India and the contentious Crocodylus ossifragus, perhaps a synonym of the Siamese crocodile. Alas I gotta read more into them so apologies for the bare bones summary.
An animal I am more familiar with is the Mun River Alligator, Alligator munensis. It is one of the two alligators from Pleistocene Asia (alongside the still living Chinese Alligator), but easily recognized by its deep, body skull that may suggest it fed on hard-shelled prey.
Another one from South Asia is Gavialis bengawanicus. Unlike Toyotamaphimea and co. this one is in the same genus as todays Indian Gharials and therefore a great deal more gracile, with large, telescoped eyes.
Continuing this southward trajectory takes us to our second to last gharial for this thread, and one of the most interesting ones. Ikanogavialis (?) papuensis inhabited the coast of the Salomon Islands of New Guinea and would therefore have inhabited saltwater. It was described as a species of Gavialis then attributed to Ikanogavialis. Problem is that geographically and stratigraphically, Ikanogavialis is rather distant. Then again, PhP does not concern itself with genus names that much and Papua gharial would actually work just fine. It's also been argued that the holotype is nondiagnostic on a species level and could still be Gavialis, but perhaps additional remains and studies can clarify things beyond the fact that it existed.
Instead, lets turn to our last gavialoid over on the Australian mainland: Gunggamarandu. Now two big caveats 1. it's not known from the most complete material 2. it's not entirely clear whether or not it was Pliocene or Pleistocene, like another croc later on
What Gunggamarandu would offer is a unique branch of gavialoid on continental Australia. Phylogenies suggest it may have been a very early branch and gharials are an underappreciated part of Cenozoic Australian croc fauna, otherwise dominated by the next few taxa.
We've finally arrived at mekosuchines, a unique radiation exclusive to Australia and some islands. First lets talk about Paludirex, the swamp king. There are two species to be considered, the smaller Paludirex gracilis which was definitely Pleistocene. And the larger, more robust Paludirex vincenti, although much like Gunggamarandu its not entirely clear whether or not it actually reached into the Pleistocene or died during the Pliocene. For entertainment value tho I would have loved to see it featured.
Of course we can't talk mekosuchines without mentioning Quinkana, a mysterious animal with a deep skull and serrated teeth often interpreted to have been terrestrial. Sadly, while I would have loved to see it, the lack of remains means its at a high risk to age badly.
Theres at least two more mainland mekosuchines I at least want to mention, the Darling Downs taxon and the Floraville taxon. The former may represent a third species of Paludirex, while the latter is a ziphodont form, possibly distinct from Quinkana.
Which takes us to some of the last holdouts of mekosuchines. Over on Fiji there was Volia, an animal some 2 or 3 meters in length. It's remains are fragmentary, but show an animal with at least somewhat elongated jaws that likely filled the niche of top predator.
Finally, there is the iconic Mekosuchus, known from two species from New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Contrary to popular belief, its not that likely that they were tree climbers and instead their teeth suggest adaptations to feeding on hard shelled prey like crabs and snails.
Now as I said at the beginning of the post, I don't blame anyone on the lack of crocs. As has been said in the aftermath of the first two seasons, when you got the choice between something clearly unique vs a croc with small horns, its obvious where the budget goes. But I do believe that there are a handful that could have been nice additions for their ecological impact or their anatomy. Still second fiddle but unique in their own right. I also do think that theres a handful of forms that could have been aluded to via stock footage and only IDd via narration, tho of course we all know that animal IDs in season 3 are their own can of worms but I digress, the main point of the thread is not a critique, but a love letter to the crocs that were knocking around at the time in addition to the ones still with us.
And of course theres still plenty of cool things that can be done with crocs regardless, even as a simple secondary antagonistic force to the protagonist animal of whatever segment.
THEY CANT KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS
How are you so informed did you study paleontology or is it purely leisure
I have not studied paleontology myself, no, but I keep up with and read scientific papers and write on Wikipedia. I also have several friends who are in academia/studying paleontology and just generally frequent these kinds of circles online as well as the occasional in-person event.
The Crocodiles of the Pleistocene
A few weeks ago Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age released to a overall positive reception, but alas, as so often the case, my favourite group of animals was shafted. But this won't stop me from providing an overview of what was around.
Let me prefice this by saying that I of course understand their absence, obviously more unique fauna takes priority and I don't begrudge the team their choice. I also want to highlight that I'm just pulling from the entire Pleistocene, rather than just the ice age proper.
Shout out to Joschua Knüppe's fantastic "Giants Among Us" poster, featuring (most) Pleistocene fossil crocodiles Go buy it NOW
Lets start with one that's perhaps the least interesting but easiest to cast: Alligator hailensis. By all accounts, hailensis is not too different from modern gators, being closely related, similarily proportioned and reaching a similar length. Obviously that makes its inclusion the least vital but the easiest. Insert some shots of a modern gator (easy enough to come by) and just pretend its hailensis. Especially as filler along more exciting animals like short faced bears, Xenosmilus, sloths, elephants, etc...
And that's it for North America already. Turns out glaciation is not especially conductive for croc diversity. Thing's aren't looking much better for South America either. Joschua's poster features Caiman venezuelensis, found at the El Breal de Orocual tar pit. But the validity of this species has been questioned. It's known from fragmentary remains and may instead just be a spectacled caiman as we know them today. It does share some similarities with the Rio Apaporis caiman, which is a whole other can of worms (ignore the fraud in the photo).
On the note of C. venezuelensis, I'll also briefly bring up "Crocodylus caiari", which even I was unfamiliar with until earlier this year. Alas, tho a well preserved animal possibly close to modern Orinoco crocs, its a nomen nudum as its never been formally published.
To compensate for the lack of described and distinct fossil crocs from the Americas, I'll give a quick shout out to Cuban crocodiles, which used to be far more wide ranging during the Ice Age and would have come into contact with (and hunted) island ground sloths.
Turning attention towards Africa offers much better studied options. Two of the most well known are probably the Paleoafrican crocodiles of East Africa, Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni and Crocodylus anthropophagus, both of which would have been in immediate contact with early humans. C. thorbjarnarsoni may have reached sizes larger than even the largest modern saltwater crocodiles. Brochu and Storrs even half jokingly suggest that the reason theres no direct evidence for human predation in Kenya is because it would just swallow early humans whole.
Further north then you would find Crocodylus sudani, perhaps a golden opportunity to address how the Sahara wasn't always an enormous desert. Anatomically this one is considerably smaller than our previous two mentions, but does combine a rostral boss with squamosal horns.
As far as the African mainland is concerned I saved best for last: Euthecodon This one might look like a gharial, but its actually a relic of a time when "dwarf crocodiles" were much more diverse. Long snouted with strange, sleeved teeth and oh yeah probably quite large.
Before moving on theres two more island species to cover. Over on the Seychelles there's Aldabrachampsus, a small species with cute little horns above the ears. It may have fed on or at least scavenged on the island's giant tortoises.
And if you like the "cat ears" then look no further than Voay over on Madagascar. The island is already featured so perhaps there was at one point discussion, but alas. Anyways, Voay is probably the most famous croc with enlarged horns and perhaps the one with the largest. Voay was the one I had more hope for than most the others and I do think it could still work with what we got, but theres a lot of other stuff they could have done with Madagascar, from giant lemurs to the various native hippos.
In Asia we're getting three for the price of one with Toyotamaphimeia and Hanyusuchus, the former featuring two species native to Japan and Taiwan respectively while Hanyusuchus inhabited the Chinese south-east until the 14th century. I will concede that Hanyusuchus is probably most interesting in its recent history and its relationship with advanced human civilisations, while Toyotamaphimeia taiwanicus is rather incomplete.
Toyotampahimeia machikanensis from Japan meanwhile is ideal. 6 to 7 meters long, quite robust, its close kin are interpreted as possibly having been quite vocal and capable of taking down horses and other livestock. It lived at the edge of what crocs can tolerate in terms of cold, shows evidence of fighting others of its kind, etc...
If we wanna talk more generalized crocs we got Crocodylus palaeindicus, close kin to today's Mugger crocodiles, in India and the contentious Crocodylus ossifragus, perhaps a synonym of the Siamese crocodile. Alas I gotta read more into them so apologies for the bare bones summary.
An animal I am more familiar with is the Mun River Alligator, Alligator munensis. It is one of the two alligators from Pleistocene Asia (alongside the still living Chinese Alligator), but easily recognized by its deep, body skull that may suggest it fed on hard-shelled prey.
Another one from South Asia is Gavialis bengawanicus. Unlike Toyotamaphimea and co. this one is in the same genus as todays Indian Gharials and therefore a great deal more gracile, with large, telescoped eyes.
Continuing this southward trajectory takes us to our second to last gharial for this thread, and one of the most interesting ones. Ikanogavialis (?) papuensis inhabited the coast of the Salomon Islands of New Guinea and would therefore have inhabited saltwater. It was described as a species of Gavialis then attributed to Ikanogavialis. Problem is that geographically and stratigraphically, Ikanogavialis is rather distant. Then again, PhP does not concern itself with genus names that much and Papua gharial would actually work just fine. It's also been argued that the holotype is nondiagnostic on a species level and could still be Gavialis, but perhaps additional remains and studies can clarify things beyond the fact that it existed.
Instead, lets turn to our last gavialoid over on the Australian mainland: Gunggamarandu. Now two big caveats 1. it's not known from the most complete material 2. it's not entirely clear whether or not it was Pliocene or Pleistocene, like another croc later on
What Gunggamarandu would offer is a unique branch of gavialoid on continental Australia. Phylogenies suggest it may have been a very early branch and gharials are an underappreciated part of Cenozoic Australian croc fauna, otherwise dominated by the next few taxa.
We've finally arrived at mekosuchines, a unique radiation exclusive to Australia and some islands. First lets talk about Paludirex, the swamp king. There are two species to be considered, the smaller Paludirex gracilis which was definitely Pleistocene. And the larger, more robust Paludirex vincenti, although much like Gunggamarandu its not entirely clear whether or not it actually reached into the Pleistocene or died during the Pliocene. For entertainment value tho I would have loved to see it featured.
Of course we can't talk mekosuchines without mentioning Quinkana, a mysterious animal with a deep skull and serrated teeth often interpreted to have been terrestrial. Sadly, while I would have loved to see it, the lack of remains means its at a high risk to age badly.
Theres at least two more mainland mekosuchines I at least want to mention, the Darling Downs taxon and the Floraville taxon. The former may represent a third species of Paludirex, while the latter is a ziphodont form, possibly distinct from Quinkana.
Which takes us to some of the last holdouts of mekosuchines. Over on Fiji there was Volia, an animal some 2 or 3 meters in length. It's remains are fragmentary, but show an animal with at least somewhat elongated jaws that likely filled the niche of top predator.
Finally, there is the iconic Mekosuchus, known from two species from New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Contrary to popular belief, its not that likely that they were tree climbers and instead their teeth suggest adaptations to feeding on hard shelled prey like crabs and snails.
Now as I said at the beginning of the post, I don't blame anyone on the lack of crocs. As has been said in the aftermath of the first two seasons, when you got the choice between something clearly unique vs a croc with small horns, its obvious where the budget goes. But I do believe that there are a handful that could have been nice additions for their ecological impact or their anatomy. Still second fiddle but unique in their own right. I also do think that theres a handful of forms that could have been aluded to via stock footage and only IDd via narration, tho of course we all know that animal IDs in season 3 are their own can of worms but I digress, the main point of the thread is not a critique, but a love letter to the crocs that were knocking around at the time in addition to the ones still with us.
And of course theres still plenty of cool things that can be done with crocs regardless, even as a simple secondary antagonistic force to the protagonist animal of whatever segment.
The Lemuria Phase 2 murals so far didn't have that many large predators, this isn't the case in the savannah! The central part of the composition is a large gondwanather being eaten by a large number of predators and scavengers. Over 4 m wingspan enantiornithines, huge...
hyaenodonts and bone crushing noasaurs are a common sight here. Meanwhile multituberculates and herds of simosuchids roam the plains in the back. As usual the landscape here also tells the story of this place. The ditch the animals gather in is a shallow sinkhole...
created thanks to widespread karstification of this former carbonate platform. Likewise the hills in the background are inspired by the gogo formation in Australia, with reefs still forming prominent outcrops in the steppe.
For people not aware, Lemuria is a spec evo project of the #paleostream community. It follows the evolution of organisms living on the fictional continent of Lemuria (fusion of Madagascar and India) from the Cretaceous to the Pleistocene. We are in the Oligocene #LemuriaChallenge
Sissokosuchus: Expanding Africa's Notosuchian Record
We got a fascinating new croc on our hands, tho I'll be the first to admitt that its actual material is much less interesting than the implications that come with it. Meet Sissokosuchus maliensis (Sissoko's crocodile from Mali), a new genus of itasuchid notosuchian from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian to Albian) of, well, Mali.
Like I said, the material itself isn't much to look at I admitt, multiple specimens and yet we don't even have a complete skull, but the material is enough to give us some general ideas. Most importantly is arguably the fact that the lower jaw is rather narrow while the overall snout is roughly triangular and platyrostral, i.e. its flattened like in modern crocs. These are hallmarks of a group of notosuchians known as the Itasuchidae (or Pepesuchinae is you ask other people). Classically, itasuchids are regarded as a South American group, where most of their diversity is from. But recent works has suggested that they might have ranged into Africa too, with the enigmatic Stolokrosuchus and the peirosaurid Rukwasuchus both recovered as early branching members of the family in this newest study as well as last year's description of Epoidesuchus. Sissokosuchus is a bit more derived still than these two, and together these three significantly expand on the record of notosuchians from continental Africa, which previously consisted of canidodontids, mahajangasuchids, uruguaysuchids and of course peirosaurids.
Epoidesuchus by Guilherme Gehr, not from Africa but it gives you a general idea of itasuchids.
In addition to expanding the notosuchian record, the paper also draws up an interesting hypothesis for the geography of Mali during this part of the Cretaceous. Summarized, the Continental Intercalaire of Mali may represent the downstream part of a larger West African river system known as the Paleo-Tegama River System, which is formed by various rivers coming from the east and south and eventually empties into the Tethys Sea in the north. While Sissokosuchus is from the northern downstream part, the upstream region is preserved through the famed formations of the Tegama Group, namely the Elrhaz and Echkar Formations of Niger. Both Formations are well known for their fossils, including Nigersaurus, Suchomimus, Ouranosuchus and yes Spinosaurus. They are also well known for their crocodile material, featuring giant neosuchians like Sarcosuchus and Elosuchus, the bizarre Laganosuchus, small uruguaysuchids like Anatosuchus and the ever present Araripesuchus (which is found in both formations) and of course my personal favourite Kaprosuchus.
Left: A map of West Africa during the Early Cretaceous Right: Sarcosuchus taking down an abelisaur by Sergey Krasovskiy
So even if the material itself isn't mindblowing, Sissokosuchus goes a long way at improving our understanding of notosuchian paleogeography, their diversity in Africa and the paleogeography and environment of Early Cretaceous West Africa.
Wikipedia page: Sissokosuchus - Wikipedia
and the original publication: A new itasuchid (Crocodyliformes, Notosuchia) from the Early Cretaceous of Mali and the ancient Paleo-Tegama river system of Gondwana: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: Vol 0, No 0 - Get Access
PS: I really need to get back to my monthly croc science recaps, theres been a lot going on but I took on a new large scale Wikipedia project related to some recent news thats kept me busy
🐊 Histoire physique, naturelle, et politique de Madagascar Paris: Impr. nationale, 1885- Original source Image description: Detailed black and white lithographic illustration of two crocodile heads viewed from above. The left crocodile is labeled “2” and identified as Crocodilus robustus, showing a broad, textured snout with distinct scales and nostrils. The right crocodile, labeled “1” as Crocodilus madagascariensis, has a slightly narrower snout and prominent bony ridges. Both heads feature detailed skin textures with visible scales and symmetrical patterns. The print includes scientific labeling and is from an 1885 publication titled “Histoire physique, naturelle, et politique de Madagascar,” focusing on reptiles.
Paleontology fun fact
"Crocodilus robustus", here shown as the more robust animal on the left of the image, is not an extant animal as the illustration might suggest. Instead this animal is nowadays known by the name Voay and died out within the last two thousand years.
What the image also doesn't show is what Voay is arguably best known for these days, a pair of large squamosal horns that somewhat resemble ears (though they are bony structures located just above the ear flap). And if you think the one below looks funky, trust me, theres skulls with even more extreme horns.
Crocodilus madagascariensis meanwhile, our more gracile animal in the original post, is nowadays agreed to simply be a modern nile crocodile, who established a population on Madagascar. While it was at one point believed that they only moved in after the extinction of Voay, this no longer seems to be the case and the two appear to have overlapped. Fun fact, the name Crocodilus madagascariensis was actually coined twice by two different authors independent of each other. Another fun fact, some nile crocodile populations on Madagascar actually live in caves.
oh I love this guy's stupid name it's basically just a stack of nested prefixes. Parapropalaehoplophorus basically means "similar to Propalaehoplophorus", which in itself means "early Palaehoplophorus" which then in turn means "ancient Hoplophorus"
So this animal is basically called Similar-Early-Ancient-Hoplophorus. I can only assume this was a deliberate bit to pack on as many prefixes as possible, and I propose that the next step in the chain should be to start adding suffixes too. get ready for Parapropalaehoplophoroides
Pseudoparapropalaehoplophorus would also be an option; to the same effect as the suffix -oides, more or less.
@knuppitalism-with-ue you should show them yours
