Feb 13, 2016
Weird Backs Month #13 -- Hypselorhachis
Hypselorhachis lived during the Early-Mid Triassic of Tanzania (~247-242 mya). Although only known from a single vertebra, it has enough similarity to the sailbacked stem-crocs to be tentatively classified as a member of that family. Any estimate of its size is also going to be very speculative as a result, but based on its relatives somewhere in the region of 3m long (9′10″) seems likely.
The ctenosauriscids were some of the first archosaurs to spread across the globe, with species known from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America over a period of about 10 million years. Despite this wide distribution, substantial fossil remains are incredibly lacking and there’s still a lot we don’t know about them.