Parasuchus
Name:
Parasuchus
(near crocodile).
Phonetic: Pah-rah-soo-kus.
Named By: Richard Lydekker - 1885.
Classification: Chordata, Sauropsida,
Phytosauria.
Species: P. hislopi (type).
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Roughly about 2.4 meters long.
Known locations: India, Andhra Pradesh - Lower
Maleri Formation, and Madhya Pradesh - Tiki Formation.
Time period: Carnian to Norian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Remains of several
individuals ranging from disarticulated isolated remains to articulated
skeletons.
The
early days of the formal classification of the phytosaur Parasuchus
are
a little muddy to say the least. The original description of the
genus later turned out to be a ‘chimera’, meaning that the
remains described were of two different animals described as one, in
this case a phytosaur and a rhynchosaur.
When the German
palaeontologist Freidrich von Huene discovered that the braincase of
the remains belonged to a rhynchosaur genus named Paradapedon
(itself
now a synonym to Hyperodapedon),
study of Parasuchus began to be
clearer, especially with the advent of new Parasuchus
individuals
later in the twentieth century. On a quick side note, the name
Parasuchus actually first appeared in print in
1870 in a list
written by Thomas Huxley, but because there was no formal description
for what it was, Richard Lydekker was still able to use the name in
1885.
Parasuchus
is now known by much more complete skeletal remains, and these
indicated that Parasuchus was a particularly primitive genus in terms
of physical development. The known temporal range of the genus in the
late Triassic however indicates that Parasuchus was
also a late
surviving form since other more advanced genera of phytosaurs are known
to have been living at the same time as this genus.
The
phytosaurs were analogous to today’s crocodiles in their ecological
niche, though technically they are not related to them. Because
they are always found in what were semi-aquatic environments,
phytosaurs like Parasuchus are expected to have
been predators lurking
in the water of river systems and lakes, occasionally basking on the
edges. The description of the protosaur genus Malerisaurus
was born
out of the discovery of two almost complete individuals that were
believed to have been the stomach contents of two Parasuchus.
This
has indicated that Parasuchus included more
advanced vertebrates into
its diet and not just fish.
Further reading
- Maleri and Denwa Reptilia and Amphibia - Palaeontology Indica
1: 1–38. - Richard Lydekker - 1885.
- A primitive parasuchid (phytosaur) reptile from the Upper
Triassic Maleri Formation of India - Palaeontology 21 (1):
83–127. - Sankar Chatterjee - 1978.
- Malerisaurus, A New Eosuchian Reptile from
the Late Triassic of
India - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London,
Series B 291: 163–200. - Sankar Chatterjee - 1980.
- The Early Evolution of Archosaurs: Relationships and the Origin
of Major Clades - Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural
History 352: 1–292. - Sterling J. Nesbitt - 2011.
- Relationships of the Indian phytosaur Parasuchus hislopi
Lydekker,
1885. - Papers in Palaeontology. 2 (1): 1–23. - Christian F. Kammerer,
Richard J. Butler, Saswati Bandyopadhyay & Michelle R. Stocker
- 2016.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |
 |