Name:
Titanosuchus
(Giant (titan) crocodile).
Phonetic: Ti-tan-os-su-kuss.
Named By: Richard Owen - 1876.
Synonyms: Parascapanodon, Scapanodon.
Classification: Chordata, Amniota, Synapsida,
Therapsida, Dinocephalia, Tapinocephalia, Titanosuchidae.
Species: T. ferox (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: 2.5 meters long.
Known locations: South Africa.
Time period: Capitanian of the Permian.
Fossil representation: Several fragmentary remains.
Richard
Owen described Titanosuchus from a set of teeth,
although if he
realised that what he named was not actually a crocodile he may have
wanted to give Titanosuchus a more anatomically
correct name, like he
tried to do with the pterosaur Ornithocheirus,
and the prehistoric
predatory whale Basilosaurus.
Instead Titanosuchus was one of the
therapsid
carnivores which were descended from the pelycosaurs which
includes some famous carnivores such as Dimetrodon
and Sphenacodon.
Even
though Titanosuchus is generally accepted as being
a carnivore, some
have questioned the standing hypothesis on the grounds that the teeth
would equally have served a herbivore. However it may be that
Titanosuchus simply used these teeth in a predatory
manner, such as
crushing bone. As always it is a case of how the fossils are
interpreted.
As
a carnivore Titanosuchus would have likely focused
its attention on
other similar but smaller creatures. Titanosuchus
has also been
envisioned to hunt related herbivorous synapsids from the same area
such as Moschops
and Jonkeria,
although since both grew to almost
double the size of the largest known Titanosuchus,
it may have had to
concentrate upon younger and smaller individuals.
Titanosuchus
is often mentioned as being similar to the larger Titanophoneus,
a
similar carnivore known from Russia.
Further reading
- The fauna of the Tapinocephalus zone (Beaufort beds of the Karoo):
Annals of the South African Museum, v. 56, part 1, p. 1-73. - L. D.
Boonstra - 1969.