Australosuchus clarkae

Australosuchus is an extinct monospecific genus of crocodylian belonging to the subfamily Mekosuchinae. The type and only known species Australosuchus clarkae lived during the Late Oligocene and the Early Miocene in the Lake Eyre Basin of South Australia. It was described in 1991 by Paul Willis and Ralph Molnar from fossil material discovered at Lake Palankarinna.

Australosuchus clarkae

Ristevski, J.; Willis, P.M.A.; Yates, A.M.; White, M.A.; Hart, L.J.; Stein, M.D.; Price, G.J.; Salisbury, S.W. · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AustralosuchusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At most 12 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 27.3 Mya and 15.98 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 3 of 4 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesMiocene27–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27.8 Mya15.5 Mya

4 occurrences of Australosuchus clarkae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Namba — 31.17°S, 140.23°ENamba — 31.10°S, 140.11°EEtadunna — 28.78°S, 138.42°EWipajiri — 28.29°S, 138.26°E

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The named rock units Australosuchus clarkae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Australosuchus clarkae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Australosuchus clarkae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

50 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Australosuchus clarkae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Australosuchus clarkae

Credit
Ristevski, J.; Willis, P.M.A.; Yates, A.M.; White, M.A.; Hart, L.J.; Stein, M.D.; Price, G.J.; Salisbury, S.W.
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Australosuchus clarkae · SAMA:Palaeontology:P42788

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAustralosuchus through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Willis and Molnar 1991