Melanosuchus niger

The black caiman is a crocodilian reptile endemic to South America. With a maximum length of around 5 to 6.5 m and a mass of over 450 kg (1,000 lb), it is the largest living species of the family Alligatoridae, and the third-largest crocodilian in the Neotropical realm. True to its common and scientific names, the black caiman has a dark greenish-black coloration as an adult. In some individuals, the pigmentation can appear almost jet-black. It has grey to brown banding on the lower jaw; juveniles have a more vibrant coloration compared to adults, with prominent white-pale yellow banding on the flanks that remains present well into adulthood. The banding on young helps with camouflage by breaking up their body outline, on land or in water, in an effort to avoid predation. The morphology is quite different from other caimans but the bony ridge that occurs in other caimans is present. The head is large and heavy, an advantage in catching larger prey. Like all crocodilians, caimans are long, squat creatures, with big jaws, long tails and short legs. They have thick, scaled skin, and their eyes and noses are located on the tops of their heads. This enables them to see and breathe while the rest of their body is underwater.

Melanosuchus niger

Rigelus · 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
MelanosuchusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At most 4.4 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.63 Mya and 7.246 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Miocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceMiocene12–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–10.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10.0–9.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.8–9.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.6–9.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.4–9.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.3–9.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.1–8.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.9–8.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.7–8.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.5–8.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.4–8.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.2–8.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.0–7.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.8–7.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.6–7.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.5–7.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.3–7.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12.1 Mya6.7 Mya

1 occurrence of Melanosuchus niger on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

1 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

1 formation

Solimões — 9.05°S, 68.77°W

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

Melanosuchus niger and its relatives

Miocene

Where Melanosuchus niger and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

8 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Melanosuchus niger, 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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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 doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Melanosuchus niger

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

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Melanosuchus niger · KWATA:JAGUARS:R917

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 itMelanosuchus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Spix 1825