Euthecodon

Euthecodon is an extinct genus of long-snouted crocodile. It was common throughout much of Africa during the Neogene, with fossils being especially common in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Libya. Although superficially resembling that of gharials, the long snout was a trait developed independently from that of other crocodilians and suggests a diet of primarily fish. Euthecodon coexisted with a wide range of other crocodiles in the areas it inhabited before eventually going extinct during the Pleistocene. The first remains of Euthecodon were described by French paleontologist Léonce Joleaud based on material collected by the Bourg de Bozas expedition between 1900 and 1903 in Ethiopia. These remains, thought to belong to a species of false gharial, were first described in 1920 under the name Tomistoma brumpti. Later that year René Fourtau described fossils from Wadi Natrun, Egypt as a new species and genus, Euthecodon nitriae. Subsequent researchers debated whether the two species were distinct enough to form separate species. Joleaud argued that the rostral proportions were too malleable to separate the two, later going as far as to propose that both specimens should still fall under the genus Tomistoma. Both Camille Arambourg and Josef A. Kälin recognized Euthecodon as a valid species but hesitated to split them into two forms, with Kälin recognizing only E. brumpti. Later both Antunes (1961) and Arambourg and Magnier (1961) came to support both species. The views of Oskar Kuhn and Rodney Steel are less clear, as their publications contain contradictions and taxonomic errors. A third species was described by Ginsburg and Buffetaut in 1978 based on a skull from Gebel Zelten, Libya, which was shorter proportioned than either of the two previously recognized forms. This species was named Euthecodon arambourgi after Camille Arambourg. Euthecodon was a large-bodied crocodilian with an elongated snout similar to that of extant gavialoids.