PZ Myers. 2004 Aug 26. Junggarsuchus. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/junggarsuchus/>. Accessed 2008 Dec 01.
Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Thursday, August 26, 2004
Junggarsuchus
I'm a sucker for fossils, so here's one:
Junggarsuchus sloani holotype skull. a, angular; aof, antorbital fenestra; bo, basoccipital; bs, basisphenoid; cf, carotid foramen; d, dentary; eo, exoccipital; f, frontal; j, jugal; la, lacrimal; mf, external mandibular fenestra; mx, maxilla; n, nasal; o, orbit; p, parietal; pa, palpebral; pf, prefrontal; pl, palatine; pm, premaxilla; po, postorbital; pt, pterygoid; q, quadrate; qf, quadrate fenestra; qj, quadratojugal; rp, retroarticular process; sa, surangular; saf, surangular foramen; sc, sagittal crest; soc, supraoccipital; sq, squamosal; stf, superior temporal fenestra.
It's a new Jurassic sphenosuchid, or a sort of proto-crocodile, named Junggarsuchus sloani. The nifty thing about it is two-fold: 1) its skull has similarities to modern crocodilian skulls (those of us who have taken a comparative anatomy course know how strange crocodile skulls are—thick and bony, and the cruel TA expected us to be able to sort out all those bones fused together in a mish-mash), and 2) the rest of the skeleton was cursorially adapted, that is, it was better suited to running on land then modern crocodiles. Here's Clark et al.'s phylogenetic analysis:
They place it as the closest relative to the crocodyliformes, which suggests that modern crocodiles and their specialized skulls evolved from more terrestrial forms. Before you start imagining giant ferocious crocodiles galloping across the plains, though, I should mention that these were little guys, less than a few feet long total, and that skull is only about 6 inches long.
Clark JM, Xu X, Forster CA, Wang Y (2004) A Middle Jurassic 'sphenosuchian' from China and the origin of the crocodylian skull. Nature 430:1021-1024.
Science • Organisms • 0 Trackbacks • Other weblogs • Permalink