Harpacochampsa

Harpacochampsa is a poorly known Early Miocene crocodilian from the Bullock Creek lagerstätte of the Northern Territory, Australia. The current specimen consists of a partial skull and fragments of a long, slender snout reminiscent of that of a false gharial, demonstrating that it was a piscivore in life. It was originally tentatively placed within a group of Australian crocodilians now known as the Mekosuchinae, although this has been frequently disputed, with other authors instead suggesting it may have been a more basal crocodyloid or a type of gavialid. Harpacochampsa was named on the basis of several bones, primarily of the skull, discovered at the Bullock Creek fossil site in the Northern Territory of Australia. The type description lists four specimens, the holotype being formed by the right side of the back of the skull, preserving both the infratemporal fenestra and the supratemporal fenestra. Additional fossils include the tip of the snout preserving most of the premaxillae, a piece of the mandible and two osteoderms. The genus name is a combination of the Greek words "harpaco" (to seize) and "champsos" (crocodile), translating to "seizing crocodile", a nod to the anatomy of the premaxillary teeth and their inferred function. The species name meanwhile alludes to the Camfield Fossil Beds, of which Bullock Creek is a part of. The tip of the snout in Harpacochampsa is broadly similar to more slender-snouted species of Crocodylus, with the closest match in terms of robustness being the American crocodile. The sutures of the snout also most closely resemble this species, although the premaxillae are proportionally narrower. As a whole, the snout tip is relatively deep for its width, the cross-section resembling a flipped D towards the back of the preserved bone with a flat palate and sloping lateral edges. The premaxillae are roughly circular in shape and contain five teeth on each side, separated from the following maxillary teeth by a notch that presumably receives an enlarged dentary tooth, as in many other crocodilians.

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related concepts (22)

Tomistoma

Tomistoma is a genus of gavialid crocodilians. They are noted for their long narrow snouts used to catch fish, similar to the gharial. Tomistoma contains one extant (living) member, the false gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii), as well as potentially several extinct species: T. cairense, T. lusitanicum T. coppensi, and T. dowsoni. However, these species may need to be reclassified to different genera as studies have shown them to be paraphyletic, for example: previously assigned species T.

Penghusuchus

Penghusuchus is an extinct genus of gavialid crocodylian. It is known from a skeleton found in Middle to Upper Miocene rocks of Penghu Island, off Taiwan. The taxon was described in 2009 by Shan and colleagues; the type species is P. pani. It may be related to two other fossil Asian gavialids: Toyotamaphimeia machikanensis of Japan and Hanyusuchus sinensis of South China. It was a medium-sized gavialid with an estimated total length of . On 25 March 2006, on the coast of Neian, Shiyu, Penghu Islands, an excavator driver Mr.

Piscogavialis

Piscogavialis is an extinct monospecific genus of gryposuchine gavialid crocodylian. The only species yet known is P. jugaliperforatus. Fossils of Piscogavialis have been found from the Mio-Pliocene Pisco Formation of the Sacaco Basin in southern Peru in 1998, where it coexisted with the much smaller gavialid Sacacosuchus. Piscogavialis is known only from a single specimen, but it represents some of the best preserved gavialid material known from South America. The skull is preserved in three dimensions and is nearly complete.