Crocodylus acer

"Crocodylus" acer is an extinct species of crocodyloid from the Eocene of Utah. A single well preserved skull was described by paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1882 and remains the only known fossil of the species. It was found from the Wasatchian-age Green River Formation. "C." acer had a long, narrow snout and a low, flattened skull.

Crocodylus acer

Skye McDavid · 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
CrocodylusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 5.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 51.1 Mya to 45.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 39.7 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesEocene57–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences51.1 Mya45.9 Mya56.5 Mya39.2 Mya

2 occurrences of Crocodylus acer on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

2 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

2 formations

Green River — 40.50°N, 110.00°WDuchesne River — 40.20°N, 109.90°W

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

Crocodylus acer and its relatives

Eocene

Where Crocodylus acer and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

17 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Crocodylus acer, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

2 references

Each of the 2 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 Crocodylus acer

Credit
Skye McDavid
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Crocodylus acer 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 itCrocodylus through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1882