Borealosuchus sternbergii

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 sternbergii

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 most 8.8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 72.2 Mya and 63.4 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 73 of 85 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 12 of 85 occurrencesPaleocene72–72 Mya — about 2 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 4 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 4 occurrences71–71 Mya — about 4 occurrences71–71 Mya — about 4 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 4 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 4 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 4 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 4 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 4 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 4 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 4 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 4 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 4 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 4 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 4 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 4 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 4 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 4 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 3 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 2 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 2 occurrences65–65 Mya — about 2 occurrences65–65 Mya — about 2 occurrences65–64 Mya — about 2 occurrences64–64 Mya — about 2 occurrences64–64 Mya — about 2 occurrences64–63 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences72.7 Mya62.9 Mya

85 occurrences of Borealosuchus sternbergii on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

85 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

6 formations

Hell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 46.03°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.14°N, 103.80°WHell Creek — 46.46°N, 104.02°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.58°N, 106.30°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 46.90°N, 101.50°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 46.21°N, 103.77°WHell Creek — 47.32°N, 107.15°WHell Creek — 47.64°N, 106.57°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.00°N, 104.50°WLance — 43.25°N, 104.52°WLance — 43.27°N, 104.65°WLance — 43.43°N, 105.05°WDenver — 38.91°N, 104.53°WDenver — 39.50°N, 104.70°WDenver — 39.30°N, 104.30°WLaramie — 40.39°N, 104.49°WTullock — 47.60°N, 107.00°WRavenscrag — 49.22°N, 105.22°W

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

Borealosuchus sternbergii and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Borealosuchus sternbergii and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

318 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 84 sites for Borealosuchus sternbergii, 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

14 references

Each of the 85 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. 2 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Borealosuchus sternbergii

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

3D scan

Licence
CC0 — this site’s default, not the record’s
Commercial use
the licence allows it
Specimen
Borealosuchus sternbergii (Gilmore, 1910)

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Borealosuchus sternbergii · dmns:epv:136252

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 Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gilmore 1910)