Borealosuchus formidabilis

Borealosuchus is an extinct genus of crocodyliforms that lived from the Late Cretaceous to the Eocene in North America. It was named by Christopher Brochu in 1997 for several species that had been assigned to Leidyosuchus. The species assigned to it are: B. sternbergii, the type species, from the Maastrichtian of Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming; B. acutidentatus, from the Paleocene of Saskatchewan; B. formidabilis, from the Paleocene of North Dakota; B. griffithi, from the Paleocene of Alberta; and B. wilsoni, from the Eocene of Wyoming. B. formidabilis is particularly well-known, represented by the remains of many individuals from the Wannagan Creek site in North Dakota. An indeterminate species is known from the Late Cretaceous Demopolis Chalk in Alabama.

Borealosuchus formidabilis

Dr.JExplorer · CC BY-SA 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
BorealosuchusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 14 million years on record.

The record covers at least 72.2 Mya to 57.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 83.6 Mya to 56 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 2 of 19 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 17 of 19 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 19 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61–60 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences60–59 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 10 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 4 occurrences72.2 Mya57.5 Mya84.2 Mya55.4 Mya

19 occurrences of Borealosuchus formidabilis on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

19 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

Fort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WTar Heel — 34.57°N, 78.50°WBullion Creek — 47.03°N, 103.65°W

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The named rock units Borealosuchus formidabilis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Borealosuchus formidabilis and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Borealosuchus formidabilis and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

147 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Borealosuchus formidabilis, 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

3 references

Each of the 19 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 content1

Picture of Borealosuchus formidabilis

Credit
Dr.JExplorer
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Borealosuchus formidabilis was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itBorealosuchus through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Erickson 1976)