Name:
Walgettosuchus
(Walgett crocodile).
Phonetic: Wal-get-toe-sore-us.
Named By: Friedrich von Huene - 1932.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda.
Species: W. woodwardi (type).
Diet: Uncertain, but presumed carnivore.
Size: Uncertain due to incomplete remains.
Known locations: Australia - Griman Creek
Formation.
Time period: Albian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Single opalised vertebra.
Although the genus name means crocodile, Walgettosuchus was actually a theropod dinosaur, although the single opalised vertebrae that it is known from has been criticised as not being diagnostic enough to establish a specific genus. As such Walgettosuchus is generally regarded as being what is called a nomen dubium, a genus that cannot be definitively confirmed to exist. Many other Australian dinosaur genera have been named from single bones including Ozraptor, Rapator and Kakuru, the latter two also having opalised fossils.
Further reading
- On remains of a megalosaurian dinosaur from New South Wales. - Report
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 79: 482-483.
- A. S. Woodward - 1910.
- Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihte Entwicklung und
Geschichte. - Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie 1(4). - F.
von Huene - 1932.
- Problematic Theropoda: "Carnosaurs". In: Weishampel, D.B., Dodson,
P., and Osm�lska, H. (eds.). The Dinosauria. - Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press:Berkeley and Los Angeles, p.
306-317. - R. E. Molnar - 1990.