Mourasuchus

Mourasuchus is an extinct genus of giant, aberrant caiman from the Miocene of South America. Its skull has been described as duck-like, being broad, flat, and very elongate, superficially resembling Stomatosuchus from the Late Cretaceous.

Mourasuchus

Cidade et al., 2017 · 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
CaimaninaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 6.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 38 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 38 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 38 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 36 of 38 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 38 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 38 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–13 Mya — about 5 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 9 occurrences11–8.9 Mya — about 7 occurrences8.9–7.1 Mya — about 7 occurrences7.1–5.2 Mya — about 5 occurrences5.2–3.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.4–1.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11.63 Mya – 5.333 Mya57 Mya2 Mya

38 occurrences of Mourasuchus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

38 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

10 formations

Urumaco — 11.22°N, 70.27°WUrumaco — 11.22°N, 70.24°WUrumaco — 11.38°N, 69.93°WUrumaco — 11.17°S, 70.30°WSolimões — 10.13°S, 67.81°WSolimões — 8.16°S, 70.55°WSolimões — 9.05°S, 68.77°WSolimões — 10.95°S, 69.65°WSolimões — 9.20°S, 72.72°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WSolimoes — 7.66°S, 72.54°WSolimoes — 10.94°S, 69.34°WLa Victoria — 3.22°N, 75.22°WLa Victoria — 3.30°N, 75.17°WPebas — 3.99°S, 73.17°WPebas — 4.30°S, 73.46°WVillavieja — 3.28°N, 75.20°WVillavieja — 3.23°N, 75.18°WItuzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WSocorro — 11.19°N, 70.15°WYecua — 18.17°S, 63.51°WCastilletes — 11.85°N, 71.33°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mourasuchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mourasuchus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Mourasuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

342 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Mourasuchus, 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

18 references

Each of the 38 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. 6 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 Mourasuchus

Credit
Cidade et al., 2017
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Mourasuchus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itCaimaninae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Price 1964