Trilophosuchus

Trilophosuchus ("Triple Crest Crocodile") is an extinct genus of mekosuchine crocodilian from Australia.Its fossils have been found at the Ringtail Site in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area (north-western Queensland) and date to the Miocene epoch. Additional remains have also been found at the older Hiatus Site and extend its range into the Oligocene. Like the closely related Mekosuchus, it is thought to have had a short and blunt snout and large eyes that generally resembles today's dwarf crocodiles. It also shares similarities with several much older crocodylomorph groups and is commonly thought to have been more terrestrial than any crocodilian living today. Only a single species has been described, the type species T. rackhami. Trilophosuchus is best known through holotype specimen QM F16856, which represents a partial skull missing the tip of the snout. Several other isolated bones of the skull were found as well and have been assigned to Trilophosuchus. Most material of this genus has been collected from the middle Miocene Ringtail Site of the in Riversleigh, one of Australia's most famous fossil localities. One referred specimen, a parietal, has been collected the older Hiatus Site, putting the oldest appearance of the genus within the Oligocene. This Oligocene material differs subtly and may represent a second species or could simply be the result of age or intraspecific variation. The holotype skull was uncovered in 1985 during an excavation by the University of New South Wales and is currently considered to be among the best preserved fossil crocodilians from Australia, in spite of the missing snout. The genus Trilophosuchus was erected in 1993 with the description of the remains by Paul Willis of the University of New South Wales in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. In 2022 and 2023, two papers were published detailing the endocast and the skull anatomy of Trilophosuchus, greatly expanding upon the research previously published by Willis. The first of these two studies made use of high resolution μCT scan to map the shape of the crocodilian's brain.