Mourasuchus

Mourasuchus
	Skull of Mourasuchus
Temporal occurrence
	Miocene
	10 to 8 million years
Locations
	South America ( Fitzcarrald Formation , Peru );
Systematics
	Eusuchia
	Crocodiles (crocodylia)
	Alligatoroidea
	Alligators (Alligatoridae)
	Caimans (Caimaninae)
	Mourasuchus
Scientific name
	Mourasuchus
	Price , 1964
species
	M. amazonensis Price , 1964; M. atopus Langston , 1965; M. arendsi Bocquentin-Villanueva , 1984; M. nativus Gasparini , 1985; M. pattersoni Cidade et al., 2017;

Mourasuchus are extinct alligator-like reptiles fromthe Alligatoridae family . They lived in the Miocene of South America and were characterized above all by their size of 12 meters and their diet, which was unusual for an alligator: They were filter feeders .

description

The skull was described as duck-like, that is, broad, flat and greatly elongated. Outwardly, it is very similar to that of Stomatosuchus , another known extinct crocodile-like species. Its jaws were extremely fragile, which, due to a lack of bite force and robustness, indicates a diet as a filter feeder. The animal cannot possibly have torn larger, defensive prey, as the risk of injury would have been too high. Mourasuchus will have a more varied diet, feeding on small fish, bottom organisms in lakes and rivers, and filtered food particles. No living crocodile-like diet follows this diet.

Mourasuchus had rows of small, conically shaped teeth, 40 on each side of the upper and lower jaw. These were unusually long and closed very tightly so that water could be pressed out of the mouth without food components and larger plankton escaping.

Site and habitat

Mourasuchus fossils have been found in the Fitzcarrald Cave in Peru . In its time it lived there with other huge crocodilians, such as the huge gharial-like Gryposuchus and the alligator-like Purussaurus , both of which could grow to be 12 meters tall. During the Miocene Period ( Tortonium , 11.608–7.246 million years old) there was an extraordinary variety of crocodilomorphs in South America. This extraordinary flowering of giant reptiles has unexplained causes and is possibly due to ecological niches in wetlands that these giants occupied, or to a climatic / evolutionary favor of cold-blooded animals . The development of a filtering crocodile was an ending branch of evolution, but it is evidence of the amazing success and adaptability of these reptiles.

The contemporaries Mourasuchus , Purussaurus and Gryposuchus were almost certainly not direct competitors for food, since Gryposuchus adjusted to a piscivorous diet and Purussaurus mainly to large prey.

species

The type species of the genus Mourasuchus is M. amazonensis , which was described in 1964. Another species, M. atopus , was assigned to Mourasuchus after it was first assigned to another genus ( nettosuchus ) in 1965 . The latter species has a longer and thinner skull than the type species. Three other species were described later: M. arendsi Bocquentin-Villanueva , 1984, M. nativus Gasparini , 1985 and M. pattersoni Cidade et al., 2017.

Individual evidence

↑ Christopher A. Brochu: Phylogenetics, Taxonomy, and Historical Biogeography of Alligatoroidea. In: Timothy Rowe , Christopher A. Brochu, Kyoko Kishi (eds.): Cranial morphology of Alligator Mississippiensis and phylogeny of Alligatoroidea (= Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Memoir. 6, ISSN 1062-161X = Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Vol. 19 , Supplement to No. 2). Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, 1999, pp. 9-100, doi : 10.2307 / 3889340 .
^ ^A ^b Wann Langston, Jr .: Mourasuchus Price, Nettosuchus Langston, and the Family Nettosuchidae (Reptilia: Crocodilia). In: Copeia. Vol. 1966, No. 4, 1966, ISSN 0045-8511 , pp. 882-885, doi : 10.2307 / 1441424 .
↑ Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, Pierre-Olivier Antoine, Patrice Baby, Stephane Brusset, Mouloud Benammi, Nicolas Espurt, Dario de Franceschi, François Pujos, Julia Tejada, Mario Urbina: Middle Miocene crocodiles from the Fitzcarrald Arch, Amazonian Peru. In: Enrique Díaz-Martínez, Isabel Rábano (Ed.): 4th European Meeting on the Palaeontology and Stratigraphy of Latin America. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (= Publicaciones del Instituto Geológico y Minero de España. Series Cuadernos del Museo Geominero. Vol. 8). Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Madrid 2007, ISBN 978-84-7840-707-1 , pp. 355-360.
↑ Llewellyn I. Price: Sôbre o crânio de um grande crocodilídeo extinto do alto Rio Juruá, Estado do Acre. In: Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. Vol. 36, No. 1, 1964, ISSN 0001-3765 , pp. 59-66.
^ Wann Langston, Jr .: Fossil crocodilians from Colombia and the Cenozoic history of the crocodilia in South America (= University of California Publications in Geological Sciences. Vol. 52, ISSN 0068-645X ). University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1965.
↑ Zulma Gasparini: Un nuevo cocodrilo (Eusuchia) Cenozoico de América del Sur. In: Coletânea de Trabalhos Paleontológicos. Trabalhos apresentados no VIII Congresso Brasileiro de Paleontologia, 1983 (= República Federativa do Brasil - Ministério das Minas e Energia - Departamento Nacional da Produção Mineral. Série Geologia. Vol. 27, ZDB ID 2168866-7 = República Federativa do Brasil - Ministério das Ministério do Brasil Minas e Energia - Departamento Nacional da Produção Mineral, Série Geologia, Seção Paleontologia e Estratigrafia, Vol. 2). Ministério das Minas e Energia - Departamento Nacional da Produção Mineral, Brasília 1985, pp. 51-53.

[brochu-1] Christopher A. Brochu: Phylogenetics, Taxonomy, and Historical Biogeography of Alligatoroidea. In: Timothy Rowe , Christopher A. Brochu, Kyoko Kishi (eds.): Cranial morphology of Alligator Mississippiensis and phylogeny of Alligatoroidea (= Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Memoir. 6, ISSN 1062-161X = Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Vol. 19 , Supplement to No. 2). Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, 1999, pp. 9-100, doi : 10.2307 / 3889340 .

[langston-2] A ^b Wann Langston, Jr .: Mourasuchus Price, Nettosuchus Langston, and the Family Nettosuchidae (Reptilia: Crocodilia). In: Copeia. Vol. 1966, No. 4, 1966, ISSN 0045-8511 , pp. 882-885, doi : 10.2307 / 1441424 .

[salas-gismondi-3] Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, Pierre-Olivier Antoine, Patrice Baby, Stephane Brusset, Mouloud Benammi, Nicolas Espurt, Dario de Franceschi, François Pujos, Julia Tejada, Mario Urbina: Middle Miocene crocodiles from the Fitzcarrald Arch, Amazonian Peru. In: Enrique Díaz-Martínez, Isabel Rábano (Ed.): 4th European Meeting on the Palaeontology and Stratigraphy of Latin America. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (= Publicaciones del Instituto Geológico y Minero de España. Series Cuadernos del Museo Geominero. Vol. 8). Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Madrid 2007, ISBN 978-84-7840-707-1 , pp. 355-360.

[price-4] Llewellyn I. Price: Sôbre o crânio de um grande crocodilídeo extinto do alto Rio Juruá, Estado do Acre. In: Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. Vol. 36, No. 1, 1964, ISSN 0001-3765 , pp. 59-66.

[langston2-5] Wann Langston, Jr .: Fossil crocodilians from Colombia and the Cenozoic history of the crocodilia in South America (= University of California Publications in Geological Sciences. Vol. 52, ISSN 0068-645X ). University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1965.

[gasparini-6] Zulma Gasparini: Un nuevo cocodrilo (Eusuchia) Cenozoico de América del Sur. In: Coletânea de Trabalhos Paleontológicos. Trabalhos apresentados no VIII Congresso Brasileiro de Paleontologia, 1983 (= República Federativa do Brasil - Ministério das Minas e Energia - Departamento Nacional da Produção Mineral. Série Geologia. Vol. 27, ZDB ID 2168866-7 = República Federativa do Brasil - Ministério das Ministério do Brasil Minas e Energia - Departamento Nacional da Produção Mineral, Série Geologia, Seção Paleontologia e Estratigrafia, Vol. 2). Ministério das Minas e Energia - Departamento Nacional da Produção Mineral, Brasília 1985, pp. 51-53.