Sacacosuchus

Sacacosuchus is an extinct monospecific genus of marine gavialid that lived along the coast of the south-east Pacific from approximately 19 to 6.3 million years ago. Its fossils have been found in the Chilcatay and Pisco Formations of Peru, where it coexisted with the much larger Piscogavialis. Based on its skull, Sacacosuchus was most likely a generalist feeder with an estimated total body length of 4.32 m (14.2 ft). Its extinction is thought to have been caused by a combination of factors including falling sea levels and global cooling.

No picture of Sacacosuchus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none. Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is. GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Sacacosuchus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
GavialidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 8.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Miocene — about 8 of 8 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 8 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences10–9.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.7–9.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences9.1–8.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.6–8.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.1–7.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.5–7.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.0–6.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences6.4–5.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.9–5.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences5.4–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15.98 Mya7.246 Mya20.9 Mya4.8 Mya

8 occurrences of Sacacosuchus 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

8 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

Pisco — 15.50°S, 74.80°WPisco — 15.58°S, 74.72°WPisco — 15.55°S, 74.80°WPisco — 14.52°S, 75.71°WPisco — 14.45°S, 75.75°WPisco — 15.49°S, 74.73°WPisco — 14.38°S, 75.90°WChilcatay — 14.62°S, 75.63°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Sacacosuchus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Sacacosuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

114 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Sacacosuchus, 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

1 reference

Each of the 8 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content0

No picture of Sacacosuchus was found. Wikipedia, Wikidata and iDigBio were searched and had none.

Smithsonian Open Access did not answer, so this is what the others held rather than everything there is.

GBIF was asked, and what came back is not recorded: nothing, or a picture this site could not tie to Sacacosuchus, or no answer at all. This entry cannot say which.

No 3D scan of Sacacosuchus 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 itGavialidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Salas-Gismondi et al. 2022