Borealosuchus
Name:
Borealosuchus
(Boreal crocodle).
Phonetic: Bor-e-al-o-soo-kus.
Named By: Chris Brochu - 1997.
Synonyms: Leidysuchus acutidentatus,
Leidysuchus formidabilis, Leidysuchus sternbergii, Leidysuchus
wilsoni.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Crocodylomorpha, Crocodylia.
Species: B. sternbergii
(type), B. acutidentatus, B. formidabilis, B.
griffithi, B. threeensis, B. wilsoni.
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Up to 2.8 meters long, though there is
some variance between species.
Known locations: Canada, including Alberta -
Scollard Formation, and Saskatchewan - Ravenscrag Formation,
and the USA, including the states of Colorado - DeBeque
Formation, Laramie Formation and Ohio Creek Formation, Montana -
Hell Creek Formation and Tullock Formation, New Jersey -
Hornerstown Formation, North Carolina - Tar Heel Formation,
North Dakota - Bullion Creek Formation and Hell Creek Formation,
Texas, Wyoming - Bridger Formation, Green River Formation,
Lance Formation, Willwood Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous through to
the Eocene.
Fossil representation: Skulls and post cranial
remains.
The
naming of the Borealosuchus genus was born out of a
revision of the
genus Leidysuchus
which has a reputation as something of a
‘wastebasket taxon’. So far four former species of Leidysuchus
have been renamed as species of Borealosuchus,
though two further
species have now also been named.
Borealosuchus
was a mid-sized genus of crocodile,
with the
largest species B. acutidentatus attaining
lengths of two hundred and
eighty centimetres in length, with a skull thirty-six centimetres
long. Borealosuchus is also another genus of
crocodile that survived
the KT extinction that marked the end of the dinosaurs,
pterosaurs,
and the great marine reptiles. It may be that the
physiological and ecological characteristics of crocodiles allowed them
to survive this extinction event as other crocodile genera such as
Dyrosaurus
and Brachychampsa
are also known to have made it through
this extinction event.
Further reading
- A review of "Leidyosuchus"
(Crocodyliformes, Eusuchia) from
the Cretaceous through Eocene of North America. - Chris A.
Brochu - 1997.
- A new crocodylian (Archosauria) from the basal Paleocene of the
Red Deer River Valley, southern Alberta - Canadian Journal of
Earth Sciences 38 (12): 1689–1704 -X. -C Wu, D. B.
Brinkman & R. C. Fox - 2001.
- A new species of Borealosuchus
(Crocodyliformes, Eusuchia)
from the Late Cretaceous–early Paleogene of New Jersey - Journal
of Vertebrate Paleontology 32 (1): 105–116. - C. A.
Brochu, D. C. Parris, B. S. Grandstaff, R. K. Denton
Jr & W. B. Gallagher - 2012.
- A New Crocodylian from the Late Maastrichtian of Spain:
Implications for the Initial Radiation of Crocodyloids - PLoS ONE
6 (6): e20011. - Eduardo Puértolas, José I. Canudo and
Penélope Cruzado-Caballero - 2011.
- A new species of Borealosuchus (Crocodyliformes, Eusuchia) from the
Late Cretaceous–early Paleogene of New Jersey. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology. 32 (1): 105–116. - C. A. Brochu, D. C. Parris, B. S.
Grandstaff, R. K. Denton Jr., W. B. Gallagher - 2012.
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