Sarcosuchus

Sarcosuchus, from Ancient Greek σάρξ (sárx), meaning "flesh", and Σοῦχος (Soûkhos), meaning "Sobek", is a genus of crocodyliform that lived during the Early Cretaceous in North Africa and Brazil. The genus was first described in 1966 by French paleontologists Frances de Broin and Philippe Taquet on the basis of an incomplete skull that was discovered in Gadoufaoua, northern Niger. They named the type species S. imperator. Prior to 1966, fragmentary fossils of S. imperator had been found in French expeditions to the Sahara as well. In 1977, the species Crocodylus hartti, which had been discovered in Early Cretaceous deposits in Brazil in the 1850s-60s, was reassigned to Sarcosuchus. S. hartti is known from largely fragmentary material compared to S. imperator and is smaller in size. The best-preserved remains of Sarcosuchus were not unearthed until 1997 and 2000, when American paleontologist Paul Sereno and University of Chicago crews collected six new specimens, including several skulls and postcranial remains, of S. imperator.

A picture published with the record for Sarcosuchus.

Shadowgate from Novara, ITALY · CC BY 2.0 · 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
PholidosauridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia
Length
9.5 mWikidata
Mass
4.3 tonneWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 25 million years on record.

The record covers at least 125.77 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 17 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 14 of 17 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 17 occurrencesLate Cretaceous144–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences141–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–136 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences136–134 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences134–132 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences130–129 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences129–127 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences124–122 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences113–112 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences112–110 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences108–107 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences125.77 Mya100.5 Mya144 Mya93 Mya

17 occurrences of Sarcosuchus on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

17 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

Aïn el Guettar — 32.95°N, 10.28°EAïn el Guettar — 32.27°N, 10.33°EElrhaz — 16.47°N, 9.17°EContinental Intercalaire — 27.03°N, 1.08°EGara Sbaa — 30.51°N, 4.84°WTagrezou Sandstone — 17.97°N, 9.54°EMarfim — 12.93°S, 38.51°WContinental Intercalaire — 21.05°N, 0.24°WIfezouane — 31.53°N, 4.67°WPojuca — 12.89°S, 38.48°WUpper Clay — 27.26°N, 1.25°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Sarcosuchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sarcosuchus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Sarcosuchus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

63 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Sarcosuchus, 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

10 references

Each of the 17 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. 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 content2

Picture of Sarcosuchus

Credit
Shadowgate from Novara, ITALY
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itPholidosauridae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. de Broin and Taquet 1966