Ocepesuchus

Ocepesuchus
Ocepesuchus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Crocodylia
Superfamily: Gavialoidea
Genus: Ocepesuchus
Jouve et al., 2008
Species
  • O. eoafricanus Jouve et al., 2008 (type)

Ocepesuchus (meaning "Ocepe crocodile", in reference to the OCP, or Office Chérifien des Phosphates, a phosphate-mining company that participated in the excavation of the specimen) is an extinct genus of gavialoid crocodilian, related to modern gharials. It lived in the Late Cretaceous of Morocco. Described by Jouve and colleagues in 2008, the type species is O. eoafricanus, with the specific name meaning "dawn African" in reference to its great age relative to other African crocodilians. Ocepesuchus had a long snout with a tubular shape, wider than high. It is the oldest known true crocodilian from Africa.[1][2]

Ocepesuchus is based on OCP DEK-GE 45, a crushed but mostly complete skull from late Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous)-age rocks in the Oulad Abdoun Basin, in the vicinity of Khouribga, Morocco. The individual is interpreted as a small adult. The end of the snout and part of the bottom surface of the skull are missing. The preserved portion is a little over 25 centimeters long (9.8 in), and about 12 cm (4.7 in) wide at the rear margin, but the snout tapers to less than a third of that. Jouve and colleagues performed a cladistic analysis incorporating their new taxon, and found Ocepesuchus to be a gavialoid.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Jouve, Stéphane; Bardet, Nathalie; Jalil, Nour-Eddine; Suberbiola, Xabier Pereda; Bouya; Baâda; and Amaghzaz, Mbarek (2008). "The oldest African crocodylian: phylogeny, paleobiogeography, and differential survivorship of marine reptiles through the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28 (2): 409–421. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2008)28[409:TOACPP]2.0.CO;2. 
  2. ^ Other crocodile-like animals from older strata in Africa, like Sarcosuchus, are not true crocodilians, but related animals.


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