Archovember 2025 Day 20
Pseudosuchian Knoetschkesuchus langenbergensis, of Late Jurassic, Germany!
This tiny atoposaurid crocodylomorph is Knoetschkesuchus langenbergensis, with an adult size of just 55 centimetres (1.8 ft) long. Like other atoposaurids, Knoetschkesuchus had heterodont (multiple types of) teeth, and fed on a variety of small prey, mainly invertebrates, but possibly also amphibians and small mammals. Its small size and specialization towards small prey allowed Knoetschkesuchus to occupy a niche that most of the other diverse pseudosuchians of Jurassic Europe were not yet taking advantage of.
There were two species of Knoetschkesuchus, Knoetschkesuchus guimarotae is known from Portugal and Knoetschkesuchus langenbergensis here is known from Germany. During the Late Jurassic, Europe was covered by the relatively shallow Tethys Sea, with exposed landmasses being a series of scattered archipelagos and small islands. Knoetschkesuchus langenbergensis would have lived on one or more of these islands, having been found in the Süntel Formation. It would have come across the much larger marine pseudosuchian, Machimosaurus hugii, and the semi-aquatic crocodyliform Goniopholis simus. This formation is perhaps best known for the dwarf sauropod Europasaurus holgeri, an example of insular dwarfism. There were other dinosaurs on this island as well, but they are indeterminate, including an allosauroid, and other theropods.
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