Orientalosuchus naduongensis

Orientalosuchus is an extinct genus of crocodilian from the Late Eocene that was found in the Na Duong Formation in Vietnam. The genus was described in 2019 based on the fossil remains of at least 29 individuals and was key in establishing the clade Orientalosuchina, initially interpreted as a group of early alligatoroids endemic to Asia, although later studies have argued for them actually being crocodyloids instead. Orientalosuchus was a comparably small crocodilian with a blunt and rounded snout and dentition that featured both pointed teeth towards the front of the jaw and blunt, conical teeth in the back. During the Late Eocene it would have inhabited the tropical to warm-subtropical freshwater biomes of the Na Duong Formation, which featured ponds, an anoxic lake and swamp forests as some of the primary habitats. Orientalosuchus would have shared these with the narrow-snouted gavialoid Maomingosuchus and a large taxon similar to Asiatosuchus. Compared to these, interpreted as a piscivore and a generalist respectively, Orientalosuchus would have been better equipped to deal with hard-shelled prey, such as the plethora of turtles found in the region.

Orientalosuchus naduongensis

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
OrientalosuchusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At most 7.2 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 41.03 Mya and 33.9 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Eocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 1 occurrence41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences37–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36–36 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences35–35 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences34–34 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41.5 Mya33.4 Mya

1 occurrence of Orientalosuchus naduongensis on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

Na Duong — 21.70°N, 106.97°E

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

Orientalosuchus naduongensis and its relatives

Eocene

Where Orientalosuchus naduongensis and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

8 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Orientalosuchus naduongensis, 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 content1

Picture of Orientalosuchus naduongensis

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

No 3D scan of Orientalosuchus naduongensis 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 itOrientalosuchus through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Massonne et al. 2019