#chrysochampsa

[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]

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.