Postosuchus

Taxobox
name = "Postosuchus"
fossil_range = Late Triassic

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image_width = 250px
image_caption = "Postosuchus kirkpatricki"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
unranked_ordo = Crurotarsi
ordo = Rauisuchia
familia = Rauisuchidae
genus = "Postosuchus"
genus_authority=Chatterjee, 1985
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
*"P. kirkpatricki" Chatterjee, 1985 (type)
*"P. alisonae" Peyer "et al.", 2008

"Postosuchus" was a basal archosaur which lived in what is now North America during the middle through to the late Triassic period (228-202 million years ago). It was a rauisuchian, a cousin of crocodiles and came from the same ancestry as dinosaurs. Its name means "crocodile from Post", named after the Post Quarry in Texas, where many fossils of the species were found. It was one of the top predators of its area during the Triassic, larger than the small dinosaur predators of its time (such as "Megapnosaurus" and "Coelophysis"). It was a hunter which probably preyed on dicynodonts and many other creatures smaller than itself.

"Postosuchus" was a quadrupedal reptile with a wide skull and a long tail. It was about 6 meters long, 2 meters tall, and was held up by columnar legs (a quite uncommon feature in reptiles). A crocodile-like snout, filled with many large-sized dagger-like teeth, was used to kill its prey. Rows of protective plates covering its back formed a defensive shield.

A partial skeleton of "Postosuchus" from Durham County, North Carolina was discovered in 1994 and named in 2008 as new species "P. alisonae". The specific name is in reference to Alison L. Chambers, who worked to popularize paleontology in North Carolina. The skeleton of "P. alisonae" consists of a few cranial bones, seven neck, one back, and four tail vertebrae, ribs, gastralia ("belly ribs"), chevrons, bony scutes, much of the shoulder girdles, most of the forelimbs except the left wrist and hand, most of the hindlimbs except for the thigh bones, and pieces from the hip. This specimen is unusual in preserving gut contents: bones from at least four other animals, including a partial skeleton of an aetosaurid, a snout, coracoid, and humerus of the traversodontid cynodont "Plinthogomophodon", two phalanges from a dicynodont, and a possible temnospondyl bone. Furthermore, the "Postosuchus" was positioned on top of a skeleton of the sphenosuchian "Dromicosuchus", which included tooth marks on the skull and neck.cite journal |last=Peyer |first=Karin |coauthors=Carter, Joseph G.; Sues, Hans-Dieter; Novak, Stephanie E.; and Olsen, Paul E. |year=2008 |title=A new suchian from the Upper Triassic of North Carolina |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=363–381 |doi=10.1671/0272-4634(2008)28 [363:ANSAFT] 2.0.CO;2]

In popular culture

*"Postosuchus" appears in the first program of the BBC's series "Walking with Dinosaurs", where CG animation was used to recreate extinct creatures of the Mesozoic era. In this episode, it appears as the top predator, preying on "Placerias", large dicynodonts. In one segment a female "Postosuchus" sustains a fatal injury when hunting, loses her territory to another "Postosuchus", and is finally killed by a swarm of "Coelophysis", too weak to defend herself. It also shows up in "Dinosaurs Alive" where it drowns in a flash flood trying to eat a group of "Coelophysis".

References