Maomingosuchus

Maomingosuchus is an extinct genus of gavialoid crocodylian from Late Eocene of Southeast Asia. It was discovered in Priabonian-aged deposits of China and possibly also Thailand. The type species, originally Tomistoma petrolica, was named in 1958 and was redescribed as Maomingosuchus in 2017. A second species, Maomingosuchus acutirostris, was described in 2022 from middle-upper Eocence deposits of the Na Duong Basin in northern Vietnam. It is proposed to be a basal member of Gavialoidea, or alternatively within the family Tomistominae. It was a relatively small gavialoid with an estimated total length of 3–3.5 metres (9.8–11.5 ft).

Maomingosuchus

Gary Todd · CC0 · 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
TomistominaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At most 15 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 48.07 Mya and 33.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Eocene — about 4 of 4 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 4 occurrences49–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–47 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–45 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–43 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48.6 Mya33.4 Mya

4 occurrences of Maomingosuchus 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

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

Youganwo — 21.70°N, 110.88°EKrabi Basin B2 — 7.97°N, 99.06°ENa Duong — 21.70°N, 106.97°E

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The named rock units Maomingosuchus 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.

Maomingosuchus and its relatives

Eocene

Where Maomingosuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

47 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Maomingosuchus, 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

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. 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 content1

Picture of Maomingosuchus

Credit
Gary Todd
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itTomistominae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Shan et al. 2017