New Species of Dwarf Crocodile Found from Jurassic Era Germany
The Langenberg Quarry has proven to be a rich source of marine-related fossils, including small crocodile-like atoposaurid species. The fossilized remains of this crocodile were exceptionally well-preserved but were still partly in sediment, making it difficult to examine the fossils fully. After initial analysis, the crocodile was assigned to the Theriosuchus genus. To study this atopasaurid in more detail, Schwarz and colleagues did a 3-D reconstruction of one of the fossil skulls based on micro-computed tomography.
Limestone slab contains the partial skeleton of Knoetschkesuchus. Taken from Figure 3 of the manuscript.
Credit: Schwarz et al (2017)
“The study describes a new diminutive crocodile Knoetschkesuchus langenbergensis that lived around 154 Million years ago in Northwestern Germany,” says Schwarz. “Knoetschkesuchus belongs to the evolutionary lineage that leads to modern crocodiles and preserves for the first time in this group two skulls in 3D, allowing us detailed anatomical studies via micro-CT images. Our research is part of the Europasaurus-Project which studies the remains of a unique Jurassic island ecosystem in Northern Germany.”
Atoposauridae is a family of small sized crocodyliforms typically smaller than one meter in body length that was first described by the French palaeontologist Gervais in 1871
Contacts and sources:Beth Jones
PLOS
Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2017/02/new-species-of-dwarf-crocodile-found.html
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