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Tyrannoneustes, a new giant sea croc
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07-01-2013 2:47am#1According to what I've been told, Tyrannoneustes ("swimming tyrant") would be around 9 meters long and is the oldest known big game-hunting sea croc. It was found in England's Oxford Clay formation.
Unfortunately there is still very little info and no pics. It would probably look kinda like these guys, but bigger:
I'll ban anyone who calls it "T-Rex of the sea".
... Oh, crap...3
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So this Allosaurus of the sea
What do we know about it? I have never heard of it before Adam.
Haha :pac:
I don´t know much, just that it's seemingly the oldest sea croc adapted to feed on large game rather than fish, and that it was very big. It was closely related to Geosaurus so it must have looked somewhat similar but don´t quote me on this; I'm afraid we'll have to wait until a picture is published. U-U0 -
Well if we know little we at least can imagine a lot can't we. That is something I like doing, Not knowing, but making educated guesses (or in my case Uneducated guesses ), and later seeing how close your ideas are to the experts.
I imagine it was a top predator at the time it was alive (Obviously) But did it manage to live in shallow lagoon type conditions and grab the occasional land creature as it crossed from place to place (Much like Nile crocs grab a zebra) or did it go after marine creatures. If it was "finned" rather than "legged" it would tend to indicate a more marine type preference and living in slightly deeper waters, or even blue water. However I am assuming it was a Jurassic creature (age of the clay) so it would have avoided the biggies of the cretaceous (Mososaurs etc)0 -
Well if we know little we at least can imagine a lot can't we. That is something I like doing, Not knowing, but making educated guesses (or in my case Uneducated guesses ), and later seeing how close your ideas are to the experts.
I imagine it was a top predator at the time it was alive (Obviously) But did it manage to live in shallow lagoon type conditions and grab the occasional land creature as it crossed from place to place (Much like Nile crocs grab a zebra) or did it go after marine creatures. If it was "finned" rather than "legged" it would tend to indicate a more marine type preference and living in slightly deeper waters, or even blue water. However I am assuming it was a Jurassic creature (age of the clay) so it would have avoided the biggies of the cretaceous (Mososaurs etc)
Well here's the paper's summary:
"The Oxford Clay Formation of England has yielded numerous sympatric
species of metriorhynchid crocodylomorphs, although disagreement has
persisted regarding the number of valid species. For over 140 years
teeth reminiscent of the genus Dakosaurus have been known from the
Oxford Clay Formation but these have never been properly described and
their taxonomy and systematic affinity remain contentious.
Furthermore, an enigmatic mandible and associated postcranial skeleton
discovered by Alfred Leeds in the Fletton brick pits near Peterborough
also remains undescribed. We show that this specimen, and several
isolated teeth, represents the oldest known remains of a large-bodied
predatory metriorhynchid. This material is described herein and
referred to Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos gen. et sp. nov. This
species has a unique occlusal pattern: the dentition was arranged so
that the posterior maxillodentary teeth interlock in the same plane
and occlude mesiodistally. It is the first described crocodylomorph
with microscopic denticles that are not contiguous along the carinae
(forming short series of up to 10 denticles) and do not noticeably
alter the height of the keel. Additionally, the dorsally expanded and
curved posterior region of the mandible ventrally displaced the
dentary tooth row relative to the jaw joint facilitating the
enlargement of the dentition and increasing optimum gape. Therefore,
Tyrannoneustes would have been a large-bodied marine predator that was
well-suited to feed on larger prey than other contemporaneous
metriorhynchids. A new phylogenetic analysis finds Tyrannoneustes to
be the sister taxon to the subclade Geosaurini. An isolated tooth,
humerus, and well-preserved mandible suggest a second species of
metriorhynchid super-predator may also have lived in the Oxford Clay
sea. Finally, we revise the diagnoses and descriptions of the other
Oxford Clay metriorhynchid species, providing a guide for
differentiating the many contemporaneous taxa from this exceptional
fossil assemblage."
It was middle Jurassic so it didn´t see any mosasaurs but apparently there was another large sea croc around at the time, and then there were plesiosaurs too.0 -
Yes that is great Adam thank you. (Reading it again avidly Marine animal head on again I am afraid)
I was browsing and came across this too:
http://www.academia.edu/267293/A_new_metriorhynchid_crocodile_Mesoeucrocodylia_Thalattosuchia_from_the_Kimmeridgian_Upper_Jurassic_of_Wiltshire_UK0 -
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One really has to wonder as to how big Salties actually grew before man impacted on the species, and how big they may grow again given their populations are growing again in Australia and India.
Some old books (70s or so) I have give the saltwater crocodile a maximum length of 10 meters (not much smaller than your average Deinosuchus if you think about it).
In Mexico, an 8 meter long American crocodile was once reported. And the false gharial is so rare nowadays that adults rarely ever grow very large, yet the recent case of the man-eating false gharial is proof that these CAN be huge too, if given the chance:
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