Sebecus
Name: Sebecus
(Named after the Ancient Egyptian crocodile god Sobek).
Phonetic: Seh-be-kuss.
Named By: George Gaylord Simpson - 1937.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Crocodylomorpha, Notosuchia, Sebecosuchia, Sebecidae.
Species: S. icaeorhinus
(type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Roughly estimated between 2.2 and 3.1
meters in length.
Known locations: Argentina, Patagonia -
Casamayor Formation, Sarmiento Formation.
Time period: Ypresian of the Eocene.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and post
cranial remains of several individuals.
Sebecus
is a genus of notosuchian crocodylomorph
that is known to have lived in
South America during the earliest part of the Eocene. Sebecus
would
have been predators of other similarly sized animals, but unlike
crocodiles that we know today, Sebecus would have
been more
terrestrial and hunting on the land. Details of the anatomy such as
longer legs and eyes that are on the sides of the head rather than
orientated to look up all support this conclusion. The snout of
Sebecus was deep, indicating longer jaw closing
muscles that in turn
suggest that had a particularly strong bite. The teeth of Sebecus
have also been noted to be similar to the teeth of the earlier
tyrannosaurid
dinosaurs. These teeth had fairly blunt tips but were
strongly serrated, with the serrations adapted for tearing up the
preys muscle fibres. Combined with the extra strong jaw closing
muscles and Sebecus may have hunted animals that
had notably tough
hides, possibly even crunching through bones.
At
the time of writing only the type species of Sebecus,
S.
icaeorhinus, is considered valid The Sebecus
genus once had two
additional species assigned to it, S. huilensis
and S.
querejazus. S. huilensis has now
been classified as its own genus
Langstonia,
while S. querejazus is also its own genus named
Zulmasuchus,
both changes being a result of a 2007 study into
Sebecus by Paolillo & Linares.
Further reading
- Sebecus, representative of a peculiar suborder of fossil
Crocodilia from Patagonia, - Bulletin of the American Museum of
Natural History 87 (4): 221–270. - E. H. Colbert -
1946.
- The serrated teeth of tyrannosaurid dinosaurs, and biting
structures in other animal. - Paleobiology 18 (2):
161–183. - W. L. Abler - 1992.
- The serrated teeth of Sebecus and the
Iberoccitanian crocodile, a
morphological and ultrastructural comparison. - Stvdia Geologica
Salmanticensia 29: 127–14. - O. Legasa, A. D.
Buscalioni & Z. Gasparini - 1993.
- Nuevos cocodrilos Sebecosuchia del Cenozoica Suramericana
(Mesosuchia : Crocodylia). - Paleobiologica Neotropical
3: 1–25. - A. Paolillo & O. Linares - 2007.
- Postcranial anatomy of Sebecus icaeorhinus
(Crocodyliformes,
Sebecidae) from the Eocene of Patagonia. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology 32 (2): 328–354. - Diego Pol, Juan M.
Leardi, Agustina Lecuona & Marcelo Krause - 2012.
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