Heptasuchus
Name:
Heptasuchus
(Seven crocodile).
Phonetic: Hep-tah-soo.kus.
Named By: R. M. Dawley, J. M. Zawiskie
& J. W. Cosgriff - 1979.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Rauisuchia,
Paracrocodylomorpha, Loricata.
Species: H. clarki (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Skull estimated at about 65 centimetres
long. Total length estimated at about 4.9-5.2 meters long.
Known locations: USA, Wyoming - Popo Agie
Formation.
Time period: Carnian/Ladinian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and post
cranial remains of about 50% of the animal. In total fossil
remains of at least four individuals are known.
Heptasuchus
is a genus of fairly large rauiscuhian
that lived in what is now
Wyoming during the mid/early late Triassic. Rauisuchians were the top
predators on land and held onto this title until the appearance of
large theropod dinosaurs. Out of these Heptasuchus
is usually
considered to be most similar to Batrachotomus
from Germany, and both
of these are usually classed as prestosuchids (Similar to
Prestosuchus).
This association by classification may indicate that
Heptasuchus was primarily quadrupedal, though this
cannot yet be
confirmed because the limbs of Heptasuchus are only
known by partial
remains. By contrast another rauisuchian from the same formation as
Heptasuchus named Poposaurus
is confirmed to have been an obligate
biped.
At
the time of writing all of the known Heptasuchus
individuals have been
found in close proximity to one another. Large rauisuchians like
Heptasuchus are usually perceived to have been
ambush hunters that
would stake out watering holes and wait for their prey to come to
them. The accumulation of the same predators around one watering hole
has been used to explain the occurrence of several Heptasuchus
close to
one another. Here though it seems that a drought may have forced the
Heptasuchus to cluster together before they
themselves succumbed to
death from dehydration, perhaps as a result of seasonal rains being
unusually late.
Further reading
- A rauisuchid thecodont from the Upper Triassic Popo Agie Formation
of Wyoming. - Journal of Paleontology 53:1428-1431 - R. M.
Dawley, J. M. Zawiskie & J. W. Cosgriff - 1979.
- The relationships and type locality of Heptasuchus clarki,
Chugwater Group (Middle to Upper Triassic), Southeastern Big
Horn Mountains, Wyoming, USA. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology 31 (Supp. 1): 219. - J. M. Zawiskie,
R. M. Dawley & S. J. Nesbitt - 2011.
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