Protosuchus

Protosuchus
	Live reconstruction of Protosuchus
Temporal occurrence
	Lower Jurassic
	199.6 to 175.6 million years
Locations
	North America ( Arizona , Nova Scotia ); South Africa; Antarctica;
Systematics
	Archosauromorpha
	Archosauria
	Crurotarsi
	Crocodylomorpha
	Protosuchidae
	Protosuchus
Scientific name
	Protosuchus
	Brown , 1934
species
	P. richardsoni (Brown, 1933) ( type ) ; P. haughtoni (Whetstone and Whybrow, 1983) ; P. micmac Sues et al. 1996 ;

Protosuchus is an extinct genus of carnivorous Crocodylomorpha of the Lower Jurassic . The name Protosuchus means "first crocodile". It is most similar to crocodiles among the earliest animals. Protosuchus was about 1 meter long and weighed about 30 to 45 kilograms.

Protosuchus richardsoni fossil AMNH3024

An early relative of the crocodiles , its broad skull shows more crocodile features than its previous ancestors; it had short jaws that widened more at the base of the skull and provided a large surface for the insertion of the jaw muscles. This allowed the mouth to be opened further and also increased the force of the jaws with which they were closed. The animals' dentition was also similar to that of modern crocodiles, including the teeth in the lower jaw that fitted into the recesses of the upper jaw when the mouth was closed. They also had a thick, powerful tail.

The back was covered with a double row of bone plates.

In contrast to today's crocodiles, he carried his body well above the ground. Its legs were long and slender, and its thin, five-toed feet had claws. This suggests that Protosuchus was a good runner and was more likely to hunt on land than in water.

Synonyms

Baroqueosuchus Busbey and Gow, 1984
Lesothosuchus Whetstone and Whybrow, 1983

species

Three species of Protosuchus have been described so far: the type P. richardsoni from Arizona , USA , P. micmac from Nova Scotia , Canada and P. haughtoni from South Africa ; fossil remains have also been found in the Antarctic.

Web links

Commons : Protosuchus - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Douglas Palmer (Ed.): The Marshall illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and prehistoric Animals. A comprehensive, color guide to over 500 species. Marshall Publishing, London 1999, ISBN 1-84028-152-9 , p. 99.

Barnum Brown: An ancestral crocodile. American Museum novitates, No. 638. American Museum of Natural History, New York 1933, digitized .

[EoDP-1] Douglas Palmer (Ed.): The Marshall illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and prehistoric Animals. A comprehensive, color guide to over 500 species. Marshall Publishing, London 1999, ISBN 1-84028-152-9 , p. 99.