#caimaninae

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

Cuvier’s dwarf caiman? (Paleosuchus palpebrosus)

Have you seen the Cuvier's dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onMar 23

[allosuchus]

Specimens of Tsoabichi greenriverensis described in this study; from Green River Formation, Lake Gosiute deposits, Wyoming, USA.

With Gosiutichthys parvus in D.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Specimens-of-Tsoabichi-greenriverensis-described-in-this-study-from-Green-River_fig1_354024752?__cf_chl_f_tk=JePr_9OdYfBFUX.SvbZa1kdulAtUo9.d.kLLgkpEOww-1783379085-1.0.1.1-rtfGySnf.0jgz7ztGyHm.uV0laejWuMNHyWflnA.ZaU

Figure 2. Specimens of Tsoabichi greenriverensis described in this...

Download scientific diagram | Specimens of Tsoabichi greenriverensis described in this study; from Green River Formation, Lake Gosiute depos

[arminreindl]

Finally got THE BIG THREE. The skull models of Sarcosuchus, Deinosuchus and Purussaurus all made by Brennan Ruadhrí of scaledbeast.com. I can highly recommend them, they are available at different scales (these are the smallest) both with open and closed mouths. And for those not into crocs (well first of all shame on you) there's also dinosaurs, pterosaurs and other prehistoric animals available.

[arminreindl]

Ahdeskatanka is a small species of alligatorine that lived during the Eocene in what is now North Dakota. Like many other of its kin, it had blunt teeth better suited for crushing the shells of small animals than for grapling with prey.

Instead, the niche of a generalist similar to modern alligators was filled by the brachychampsin caiman Chrysochampsa, which accordingly proves to be much larger than Ahdeskatanka.

[arminreindl]

Ahdeskatanka is a small species of alligatorine that lived during the Eocene in what is now North Dakota. Like many other of its kin, it had blunt teeth better suited for crushing the shells of small animals than for grapling with prey.

Instead, the niche of a generalist similar to modern alligators was filled by the brachychampsin caiman Chrysochampsa, which accordingly proves to be much larger than Ahdeskatanka.

[arminreindl]

Large caimans, seacow predation and a new pepesuchine

What a week we just had when it comes to fossil crocodile news. Not one, not two, but three whole publications dropped this last week, each noteworthy in its own way.

The first of these was "New taxa of giant caimans from the southernmost hyperdiverse wetlands of the South American late Miocene", which coined two new genera of caiman from the Argentinian Ituzaingó Formation.

Tho the names are new, both are far from unknown. The first of these is Paranacaiman bravardi, which was described based on a fossil traditionally associated with Caiman lutescens (now deemd a nomen dubium). The second is Paranasuchus gasparinae, which was already described in 2013 under the name Caiman gasparinae.

I will say that I find the names to be a little poorly chosen. On its own either one works, but together they are very similar and feel like they might cause some confusion down the line, at least in science communication.

But that's just my own opinion. Regardless of nomenclature, they are interesting. I am currently working on reconstructing Paranasuchus, but I did wrap up Paranacaiman with a simple reconstruction of the skull and a quick scaling, revealing it to have potentially been just shy of five meters in length.

Barely a day later we got hit with more Miocene croc news, specifically a short note on crocodilian feeding traces being identified on the fossils of the dugong Culebratherium from Venezuela. The animal has bitemarks all over its body, but highlighted are those centered around the skull. In addition to simple punctures, some bitemarks appear to showcase dragging and slashing, possibly associated with the well known deathroll performed my crocs. Alltogether, this could hint at the fact that one of the large crocodilians of the Agua Clara Formation might have grasped the seacow by its snout to drown it before tearing into it. Given that the fossil locality is fairly new and the fact that they are nothing but bite marks, we do not know what crocodilian was responsible, tho the paper suggests a small to medium sized caiman. Feeding traces also show that tiger sharks got involved at some point, which mirrors fossil evidence from the Austrian Paratethys.

Artwork of the possible predation event by Jaime Bran

And the final croc paper of last week takes us back quite a bit further, all the way back to the Cretaceous. Epoidesuchus tavaresae is a new species and genus of pepesuchine peirosaurid from the Adamantina Formation of Brazil, famous for its diversity of notosuchians (and apparent lack of modern crocs sans one exception).

Now for those unfamiliar, Pepesuchinae is a subfamily of Peirosaurids, best recognized by having slender, very crocodilian-like jaws that may indicate more semi-aquatic habits, as opposed to the more terrestrial and almost pig-like peirosaurines such as Uberabasuchus.

I should mention that theres some debate around the nomenclature. The paper follows the idea that Pepesuchinae is a subfamily of Peirosauridae, but a more recent paper (which at least two of the authors including the lead worked on) has Peirosaurinae and Pepesuchinae both as fully-fledged families, with the latter going by the name Itasuchidae (which is the older name). I should further mention that the nomenclature paper coined the clade Peirosauria to contain both these families and Mahajangasuchidae.

Anyways, tho fragmentary, we know that Epoidesuchus had the same narrow jaws as many other pepesuchines/itasuchids and was likely semi-aquatic. Given that neosuchians are rarer in South America, it seems very possible that their nische was largely filled by these specialised notosuchians, which strayed from the usual terrestrial habits of their group. In fact, tho many different notosuchians are known from the Bauru Group, the only neosuchian recovered so far is the recently named Titanochampsa.

Below the gorgeous press art by Guilherme Gehr

All three papers in order

New taxa of giant caimans from the southernmost hyperdiverse wetlands of the South American late Miocene: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology: Vol 22 , No 1 - Get Access (tandfonline.com)

Full article: Trophic interactions of sharks and crocodylians with a sea cow (Sirenia) from the Miocene of Venezuela (tandfonline.com)

A new Peirosauridae (Crocodyliformes, Notosuchia) from the Adamantina Formation (Bauru Group, Late Cretaceous), with a revised phylogenetic analysis of Sebecia - Ruiz - The Anatomical Record - Wiley Online Library

[arminreindl]

Another size comparisson so soon?

Here's Chrysochampsa, a brachychampsin caiman from the Eocene of North Dakota.

I didn't talk about it much when making my post about Aheskatanka because at that point I had not really looked much into it. But seeing as it was practically redescribed, I ended up giving its wikipedia page an overhaul as well.

It's fairly interesting. Among the larger crocodilians of the formation alongside an indetermined crocodyloid (similar to Borealosuchus), it was probably a generalist and one of the apex predators due to its size and the fact that the swampy habitat was not well suited for the early mammalian predators that had appeared by that point in time.

Interestingly its somewhat of a relic, as the study found it to fall into the new clade Brachychampsini, which is composed of almost exclusively Cretaceous animals (Albertochampsa, Brachychampsa and Stangerochampsa). Also interesting is that while the puny Ahdeskatanka is thought to have been a true alligator (family Alligatorinae), the larger Chrysochampsa was actually an early type of caiman.

Wikipedia: Chrysochampsa - Wikipedia The study: Full article: Crocodylian diversity during the early Eocene climatic optimum in the Golden Valley Formation of North Dakota, U.S.A.

[thoughtlessarse]

Crocodile smile … a spectacled caiman on the bank of a stream near Las Tiamitas, Venezuela - Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images

click image for more Week in Wildlife photos.