Brochuchus
Brochuchus is an extinct genus of crocodile known from the Early Miocene Hiwegi Formation of Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria, Kenya; it was originally named as a species of Crocodylus. It contains two species, B. parvidens and B. pigotti. Brochuchus belongs to the family Crocodylidae, which includes all living crocodiles. The closest living relative of Brochuchus is Osteolaemus, the dwarf crocodile. Compared to Osteolaemus, which has a small body and blunt snout, Brochuchus has a more generalized crocodylid anatomy. Brochuchus is characterized by a flat and relatively narrow skull, and although it is larger than Osteolaemus it is smaller than most other crocodylids. It has two prominent bumps on the surface of its snout.
No picture of Brochuchus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Brochuchus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- EuthecodontiniPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia
Time the record covers
At most 6.7 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 20.45 Mya and 13.82 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
8 occurrences of Brochuchus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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
8 occurrences- Miocene100%
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
4 formations
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The named rock units Brochuchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Brochuchus and its relatives
MioceneWhere Brochuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
125 taxa- Aceratherium4 sites
- Rhinocerotidae4 sites
- Afrotragulus parvus3 sites
- Dorcatherium chappuisi3 sites
- Dorcatherium pigotti3 sites
- Gomphotheriidae3 sites
- Afrohyrax championi2 sites
- Afropithecus turkanensis2 sites
- Anasinopa leakeyi2 sites
- Canthumeryx sirtensis2 sites
- Diamantohyus africanus2 sites
- Dorcatherium libiensis2 sites
- Kenyasus rusingensis2 sites
- Kichechia savagei2 sites
- Kichechia zamanae2 sites
- Paraphiomys pigotti2 sites
- Prodeinotherium hobleyi2 sites
- Pythonidae2 sites
- Rodentia2 sites
- Testudinidae2 sites
- Aetobatus arcuatus1 site
- Afrocyon macrodon1 site
- Afrosmilus africanus1 site
- Agromyzidae1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Brochuchus, 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
4 references- A new crocodylid from the middle Miocene of Kenya and the timing of crocodylian faunal change in the late Cenozoic of Africa4
- On the occurrence of Crocodylus pigotti in the Miocene of Saudi Arabia, with remarks on the origin of the Nile crocodile2
- New specimens of ‘Crocodylus’ pigotti (Crocodylidae) from Rusinga Island, Kenya, and generic reallocation of the species1
- New crocodiles from the Early Miocene of Kenya1
Each of the 8 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. 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 content0
No picture of Brochuchus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.
Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.
GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Brochuchus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.
No 3D scan of Brochuchus 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Brochuchus”
- 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 itEuthecodontini through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Conrad et al. 2013