Mecistops cataphractus

The West African slender-snouted crocodile, or slender-snouted crocodile, is a critically endangered species of African crocodile. It is one of five species of crocodile in Africa, the other four being the Central African slender-snouted, Nile, West African and dwarf crocodiles.

Mecistops cataphractus

Thesupermat · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
MecistopsPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At most 4.7 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 7.246 Mya and 2.58 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 2 occurrences7.4–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.0–6.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.8–6.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.6–6.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.4–6.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.2–6.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.0–5.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–5.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.5–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.4–3.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.2–3.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.0–2.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.7 Mya2.1 Mya

2 occurrences of Mecistops cataphractus on record, most of them in the Pliocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

Nawata and Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ESinda Beds — 1.17°N, 30.17°E

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

Mecistops cataphractus and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Mecistops cataphractus and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

71 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Mecistops cataphractus, 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

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. 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 content2

Picture of Mecistops cataphractus

Credit
Thesupermat
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mecistops cataphractus · TxVP:M:3529

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itMecistops through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Cuvier 1825)