#paleorhinus

[confusedhadrosaur]

Day 17: Paleorhinus bransoni

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 17 - Paleorhinus bransoni

While pseudosuchians were trying all sorts of things in the Late Triassic, the unrelated phytosaurs had already nearly perfected the crocodile body plan. These “crocs before crocs were crocs” were short legged and long-jawed, carnivorous, semi-aquatic, and even covered in bony scutes like the later crocodilians would be. Visually, the biggest difference was the placement of their nostrils. Yet, while pseudosuchians continued on to eventually arrive at this body plan independently, phytosaurs did not survive the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event.

The phytosaur Paleorhinus bransoni would have been found in lakes and rivers across the Late Triassic American Southwest. It had two nostrils that jutted up from the middle of its skull and acted almost like a snorkel. Paleorhinus would have lived alongside temnospondyl amphibians likes Anaschisma and Apachesaurus, rhyncosaurs like Beesiiwo, the dicynodont Eubrachiosaurus, and large pseudosuchian predators like Heptasuchus and Poposaurus, which could have even preyed on basking Paleorhinus if they caught them out of the water. Most of Paleorhinus’s hunting would have been done in the water, though, and it seemed well equipped for catching fish and amphibians with its long jaws and sharp teeth.

[melorawr]

Keep thinking about this guy. Paleorhinus.

Dumb ass "croc", that's not where your nostrils go. Smh my head

Why they so high up, idiot? How you gonna chase things looking like this?