Anthracosuchus
Name:
Anthracosuchus
(Coal crocodile).
Phonetic: An-frah-coe-soo-kus.
Named By: A. K. Hastings, J. I. Bloch
& C. A. Jaramillo - 2014.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Crocodylomorpha, Dyrosauridae.
Species: A. balrogus (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Skull roughly about 66 centimetres long.
Body length estimated about 4.8 meters long.
Known locations: Colombia - Cerrej�n Formation.
Time period: Selandian of the Paleocene.
Fossil representation: Partial skulls of four
individuals.
Anthracosuchus
is a genus of dryosaurid crocodile
that lived in Colombia approximately
sixty million years ago. Unusually for a dryosaurid crocodile,
Anthracosuchus had a particularly broad and short
blunt snout, very
difference to the more slender snouts that are more commonly seen in
related genera. A shorter and broader snout indicates that
Anthracosuchus likely had a much stronger bite than
other dryosaurids
since there is more space for stronger and more powerful jaw closing
muscles, and food being placed nearer to the point of jaw
articulation can have a proportionately greater amount of force brought
against it. This in turn suggests that Anthracosuchus
may have had a
specialist prey preference towards tougher animals such as turtles.
Indeed, the turtle genera Carbonemys
and Puentemys
are known from
the same formation as Anthracosuchus, though with
adults of these
genera having shells over one and a half meters long, Anthracosuchus
may have picked on the smaller juveniles of these large turtles.
Anthracosuchus
is considered to have been a basal dryosaurid, though it is not the
only one from the Paleocene of Colombia, with Chenanisuchus
and
Cerrejonisuchus
also known. The latter of these, Cerrejonisuchus
is
also known from the same formation as Anthracosuchus,
as well as
another dryosaurid crocodile genus named Acherontisuchus.
With an
estimated length of just under five meters, Anthracosuchus
would
have been at least double the size of the largest estimate for
Cerrejonisuchus, but comparable to the lower
estimate of
Acherontisuchus. If Anthracosuchus
had a preference for tough prey
like turtles, then this might explain why so many genera of
crocodiles were in the same ecosystem; with each genus upholding a
particular predatory niche, they could avoid direct competition with
one another for the same prey.
The
species name for Anthracosuchus, A.
barlogus may sound familiar to
you. If so then this is because the type species for Anthracosuchus
was named after the Balrog, the huge fiery creature that appeared in
the Mines of Moria of the first Lord of the Rings
book (and later
film). A real life monster that Anthracosuchus would have lived in
fear of though was the giant snake
Titanoboa.
With upper estimates
ranging between just under thirteen to fifteen meters long, an
Anthracosuchus would have been easy prey for a large
Titanoboa.
Further reading
- A new blunt-snouted dyrosaurid, Anthracosuchus balrogus
gen. et
sp. nov. (Crocodylomorpha, Mesoeucrocodylia), from the
Palaeocene of Colombia. - Historical Biology. - A. K.
Hastings, J. I. Bloch & C. A. Jaramillo -
2014.
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