Reading time: 2 minutes – Spotted on Discover Magazine
A new species resembling a crocodile has been discovered in Brazil. The fossil, described in a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, dates back around 237 million years, during the Triassic period. The scientists who found it named its species “Parvosuchus aurelioi.”
P. aurelioi predates the appearance of dinosaurs and has an evolutionary link to the modern crocodile. Its generic name, Parvosuchus, combines “parvus”, a Latin word meaning “small”, and “suchus”, a Greek word meaning “crocodile” (after Sobek, an Egyptian crocodile-headed deity).
The size of the fossil indicates that P. aurelioi was not an apex predator (an animal at the top of the food chain). Its skull is less than 15 centimeters long, and its entire skeleton reaches approximately 1.5 meters in length. The skull features long, thin jaws with sharp teeth that curve backwards.
Reptiles of all shapes and sizes
“The discovery of a small predator in fossil layers predating those that harbor the oldest dinosaurs gives us clues about the ecosystems that existed before the dawn of the age of dinosaurs”explains paleontologist and study contributor Rodrigo Müller. “In this case, the presence of this small predator among fossils of much larger predators suggests that these ecosystems, where Brazil is located today, were very complex.”
P. aurelioi is part of a large diversity of Pseudosuchia, the prehistoric relatives of crocodiles. According to Rodrigo Müller, there were giants and small ones, quadrupeds and bipeds, some had armor, some were carnivores and others were herbivores.
When dinosaurs began to dominate the world, this diversity diminished. But the evolutionary line never died out, giving rise to today’s crocodiles, alligators and gharials.
