Dyrosaurus
| Dyrosaurus | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Artistic reconstruction of life |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| * Eocene | ||||||||||||
| 50 to 44 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Dyrosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Pomel , 1894 | ||||||||||||
Dyrosaurus was a dyrosaurid from the Eocene . His closest relatives living today include the crocodiles , to which he is not directly related.
species
Two types have been described:
- Dyrosaurus phosphaticus
- Dyrosaurus maghribensis
D. phosphaticus is the type species , it received its scientific description in 1893 on the basis of finds from the Gafsa basin in Tunisia. D. maghribensis was only discovered in 2006 in the Ouled Abdoun Basin in Morocco.
description
The snout of a dyrosaurus resembled a gavial to which it is not closely related. It had a great many teeth in its mouth that specialized in grabbing slippery prey. The legs were short and stocky, while his body was flat and streamlined. The tail was long and strong, which is an indication that Dyrosaurus was a good swimmer.
Dyrosaurus was 6 meters long. Today's gavials are just as long.
Way of life
The bones of Dyrosaurus were found in Tunisia and Morocco, where a tropical sea lay in the Eocene. This suggests the view that Dyrosaurus was a sea creature. Its long, toothed snout was perfect for catching fish.
Individual evidence
- ^ Philippe Thomas: Description de quelques fossiles nouveaux ou critiques des terrains tertiaires et secondairesde la Tunisie recueillis en 1885 et 1886. Exploration Scientifique de la Tunisie. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1893, pp. 1–46 ( [1] )
- ↑ Stéphane Jouve, Mohamed Iarochène, Baâdi Bouya and Mbarek Amaghzaz: A new species of Dyrosaurus (Crocodylomorpha, Dyrosauridae) from the early Eocene of Morocco: phylogenetic implications. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 148, 2006, pp. 603-656
