Sebecidae

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Sebecidae
Skull of Sebecus icaeorhinus

Skull of Sebecus icaeorhinus

Temporal occurrence
Late Cretaceous to Miocene
Locations
  • South America
  • Europe ?,
  • North Africa ?,
  • Pakistan?
Systematics
Archosauria
Crurotarsi
Crocodylomorpha
Mesoeucrocodylia
Metasuchia
Sebecidae
Scientific name
Sebecidae
Simpson , 1937

The Sebecidae (named after the Egyptian crocodile god Sebek ) are an extinct family within the crocodile-related Mesoeucrocodylia , whose fossils were found mainly in South America . There are also finds of uncertain affiliation from Europe, North Africa and Pakistan. Sebecids were relatively long-legged and probably lived largely on land. In South America there were no carnivorous higher mammals (placentalia) in their time , so that the ecological niche of carnivores was occupied exclusively by marsupials of the order Sparassodonta , terror birds (Phorusrhacidae) and probably the Sebecidae.

features

In contrast to other Mesoeucrocodylia they had a high, narrow snout , whose sides formed by the upper jaw (maxillary) were almost vertical. Their teeth were long, curved back, and ziphodont , i. that is, they were flattened on the sides and had sawn edges. They had four teeth on the intermaxillary bone (premaxillary) and ten to eleven on each maxillary. They had large gaps between their teeth. The fossil teeth were initially mistaken for those of theropods , carnivorous dinosaurs , so that the dinosaurs in South America were falsely believed to have survived beyond the Cretaceous-Paleogene border into the Paleogene . The intermaxillary bone is deeply structured by pits connected with canals. The skull suddenly widens in front of the eye sockets (orbits). The axial skeleton (spine and chest) is largely unknown.

The Sebecidae are combined by some scientists with the Baurusuchidae , another crocodile family with an elongated, laterally compressed skull, in a taxon Sebecosuchia (Colbert, 1946).

Genera

literature

Web links

Commons : Sebecidae  - Collection of images, videos and audio files