Confractosuchus
Name:
Confractosuchus
(Broken crocodile).
Phonetic: Con-frakt-o-su-kus.
Named By: Matt A. White, Phil R. Bell,
Nicolás E.Campione, Gabriele Sansalone, Tom Brougham, Joseph J.
Bevitt, Ralph E. Molnar, Alex G. Cook, Stephen Wroe
& David A. Elliott - 2022.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Pseudosuchia, Crocodylomorpha, Eusuchia.
Species: C. sauroktonos
(type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Skull about 28.5 centimetres long.
Reconstructed body length roughly estimated to be about 2.5 meters.
Known locations: Australia - Winton Formation.
Time period: Albian-Turonian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and partial
anterior half of the post cranial skeleton.
Confractosuchus
is a genus of crocodile that lived in Australia around the boundary of
the Early and Late Cretaceous periods. Not to be unkind, but
Confractosuchus was a fairly typical crocodile
looking much like you
would expect a crocodile to look like. But one thing that made the
discovery of Confractosuchus stand out and actually
get reported in
news outlets was that Confractosuchus individual
that makes the basis
of the genus had the preserved remains of small juvenile ornithopod
dinosaur preserved in what would have been its stomach.
This
was an exciting discovery, though not the first time predator prey
relationships between dinosaurs and crocodiles have been documented (
The giant crocodile Deinosuchus
is credited as having at least one
time not only attacking a dinosaur, but an actual tyrannosaur).
The ornithopod dinosaur that was in the stomach of the holotype
Confractosuchus is reported as to not really be that
digested with
vertebrae not only complete but still articulated. Given the strength
of crocodile stomach acids that can digest almost anything including,
horns, bones and shells, this would suggest that this dinosaur was
a recent kill that happened not long before this individual
Confractosuchus dies. It may even have been its
last meal.
Confractosuchus
is the second crocodile genus named from the Winton Formation, the
first was Isisfordia.
Further reading
- Abdominal contents reveal
Cretaceous crocodyliforms ate dinosaurs. - Gondwana Research.
106: 281–302 - Matt A. White, Phil R. Bell, Nicolás
E.Campione, Gabriele Sansalone, Tom Brougham, Joseph J.
Bevitt, Ralph E. Molnar, Alex G. Cook, Stephen Wroe
&
David A. Elliott - 2022.
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