Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni

Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni is an extinct species of crocodile from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of the Turkana Basin in Kenya. It is closely related to the species Crocodylus anthropophagus, which lived during the same time in Tanzania. C. thorbjarnarsoni could be the largest known true crocodile, with the largest skull found indicating a possible total length up to 7.6 m (25 ft). It may have been a predator of early hominins. Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni was named by Christopher Brochu and Glenn Storrs in 2012 in honor of John Thorbjarnarson, a conservationist who worked to protect endangered crocodilians.

Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni

Smokeybjb · 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
CrocodylusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 774 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 7 occurrencesPliocene — about 4 of 7 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 3 of 7 occurrencesPleistocene5.5–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.5–4.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.4–4.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.4–3.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.2–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.0–830 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences830 ka–645 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6 Mya2.58 Mya5.8 Mya274 ka

7 occurrences of Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

7 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

3 formations

Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENachukui — 3.87°N, 35.70°EKanapoi — 2.37°N, 36.08°EKanapoi — 2.32°N, 36.07°EKoobi Fora — 3.94°N, 36.25°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°E

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

Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

179 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni, 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 7 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 content1

Picture of Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni

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

No 3D scan of Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni 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 itCrocodylus through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brochu and Storrs 2012