Mekosuchinae

Mekosuchinae is an extinct clade of crocodilians from the Cenozoic of Australasia. They represented the dominant group of crocodilians in the region during most of the Cenozoic, first appearing in the fossil record in the Eocene of Australia, and surviving until the arrival of humans: the Late Pleistocene on the Australian continent and during the Holocene in the Pacific islands of Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

Mekosuchinae

Armin Reindl · CC BY 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
CrocodyloideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 62 occurrencesEocene — about 4 of 62 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 18 of 62 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 12 of 62 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 9 of 62 occurrencesPleistocene — about 11 of 62 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 8 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 7 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 4 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 3 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 18 occurrences48.07 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

62 occurrences of Mekosuchinae on record, most of them in the Oligocene. 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

62 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

11 formations

Carl Creek Limestone — 19.08°S, 138.72°ECamfield Beds — 17.12°S, 131.52°ERundle — 23.65°S, 150.98°ENamba — 31.17°S, 140.23°ENamba — 31.10°S, 140.11°EChinchilla Sand — 26.75°S, 150.63°ETirari — 28.79°S, 138.41°EWaite — 22.87°S, 134.87°EWaite — 23.70°S, 133.88°EAllingham — 19.72°S, 145.60°EEtadunna — 28.78°S, 138.42°EWipajiri — 28.29°S, 138.26°EOtibanda — 7.22°S, 146.75°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mekosuchinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mekosuchinae and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Mekosuchinae and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

240 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 49 sites for Mekosuchinae, 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

28 references

Each of the 62 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. 16 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 content1

Picture of Mekosuchinae

Credit
Armin Reindl
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Mekosuchinae 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 itCrocodyloidea through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Balouet and Buffetaut 1987)