New ancient 'marine crocodile' discovered on UK's Jurassic Coast -- and
it's one of the oldest specimens of its type ever found

Date:
January 30, 2023
Source:
Taylor & Francis Group
Summary:
A new study has uncovered a new thalattosuchian -- an ancient
'sister' of modern-day crocodiles' ancestors.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study has uncovered a new thalattosuchian -- an ancient 'sister'
of modern-day crocodiles' ancestors.


==========================================================================
The discovery of Turnersuchushingleyae follows an impressive unearthing of fossils on the Jurassic Coast, in Dorset, UK, including part of the head, backbone, and limbs. In fact, the find at the Charmouth Mudstone Formation
was so successful, Turnersuchusis the only complete enough thalattosuchian
of its age -- dating back to the Early Jurassic, Pliensbachian period,
around 185 million years ago -- to be named to date.

Published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, experts state the discovery of this new predator helps fill a gap in the fossil
record and suggests that thalattosuchians, with other crocodyliforms,
should have originated around the end of the Triassic period -- around
15 million years further back in time than when Turnersuchus lived.

"We should now expect to find more thalattosuchians of the same age
as Turnersuchus as well as older," states co-author Dr. Eric Wilberg,
Assistant Professor at the Department of Anatomical Sciences, at Stony
Brook University.

"In fact, during the publication of our paper, another paper was published describing a thalattosuchian skull discovered in the roof of a cave in
Morocco from the Hettangian/Sinemurian (the time periods preceding the Pliensbachian where Turnersuchus was found), which corroborates this
idea. I expect we will continue to find more older thalattosuchians and
their relatives. Our analyses suggest that thalattosuchians likely first appeared in the Triassic and survived the end-Triassic mass extinction." However, no digs have found thalattosuchians in Triassic rocks yet, which
means there is a ghost lineage (a period during which we know a group
must have existed, but we haven't yet recovered fossil evidence). Until
the discovery of Turnersuchus, this ghost lineage extended from the end
of the Triassic until the Toarcian, in the Jurassic, "but now we can
reduce the ghost lineage by a few million years" the expert team states.

Thalattosuchians are referred to colloquially as 'marine crocodiles' or
'sea crocodiles', despite the fact they are not members of Crocodylia,
but are more distantly related. Some thalattosuchians became very well
adapted to life in the oceans, with short limbs modified into flippers,
a shark-like tail fin, salt glands, and potentially the ability to give
live birth (rather than lay eggs).

Turnersuchus is interesting as much of these recognized thalattosuchian features had yet to fully evolve. It lived in the Jurassic Ocean and
preyed on marine wildlife. And, due to its relatively long, slender
snout, would have looked similar in appearance to the currently living
gharial crocodiles, which are found in all the major river systems of
the northern Indian subcontinent.

"However," co-author Dr. Pedro Godoy, from the University of Sa~o Paulo in Brazil says, "unlike crocodiles, this approximately 2-meter-long predator
lived purely in coastal marine habitats. And though their skulls look superficially similar to modern gharials, they were constructed quite differently." Thalattosuchians had particularly large supratemporal
fenestrae -- a region of the skull housing jaw muscles. This suggests
that Turnersuchusand other thalattosuchians possessed enlarged jaw muscles
that likely enabled fast bites; most of their likely prey were fast-moving
fish or cephalopods. It's possible too, just as in modern-day crocodiles,
that the supratemporal region of Turnersuchus had a thermoregulatory
function -- to help buffer brain temperature.

Its name 'Turner'suchus 'hingley'aeoriginates from those who discovered
and donated the specimen to the Lyme Regis Museum: Paul Turner and
Lizzie Hingley who discovered the fossil in 2017. The ending "suchus,"
is the Latinized form of "soukhos," Greek for crocodile. The specimen
is currently on display at the Lyme Regis Museum in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England.

The excavation also involved colleagues from the Charmouth Heritage
Coast Centre, who helped to unite the parts. These cliffs and the beach
on the South Coast of England site have become synonymous for such
finds with the discovery of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, as well as
the best preserved and most complete dinosaur found so far in Britain, Scelidosaurus, to name but a few.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Plants_&_Animals
# New_Species # Fish # Marine_Biology # Extinction
o Fossils_&_Ruins
# Fossils # Ancient_DNA # Dinosaurs #
Ancient_Civilizations
* RELATED_TERMS
o Timeline_of_human_evolution o Human_evolution o Alligatoridae
o Alligator o Reptile o Developmental_biology o Archaeology
o Mesopotamia

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Taylor_&_Francis_Group. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Artist's_impression_of_Turnersuchus_hingleyae ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Eric W. Wilberg, Pedro L. Godoy, Elizabeth F. Griffiths, Alan
H. Turner,
Roger B. J. Benson. A new early diverging thalattosuchian
(Crocodylomorpha) from the Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian) of
Dorset, U.K.

and implications for the origin and evolution of the group. Journal
of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2023; DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2022.2161909 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/01/230130130515.htm

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