Purussaurus - Mashpedia All-in-One Encyclopedia

Purussaurus Temporal range: Miocene

Purussaurus brasiliensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Crocodylomorpha
Order:	Crocodylia
Family:	Alligatoridae
Subfamily:	Caimaninae
Genus:	†Purussaurus Barbosa Rodrigues, 1892
Species
†Purussaurus brasiliensis (type species) Barbosa-Rodrigues, 1892 †Purussaurus neivensis Mook, 1941 †Purussaurus mirandai Aguilera et al., 2006
Synonyms
Dinosuchus neivensis Langston, 1965

Purussaurus is an extinct genus of giant caiman that lived in South America during the Miocene epoch, 8 million years ago. It is known from skull material found in the Brazilian, Colombian and Peruvian Amazonia, and northern Venezuela. The estimated skull length for one large individual of the type species P. brasiliensis is 1,400 millimetres (55 in).^[1] Paleontologists estimate that P. brasiliensis may have measured around 11 to 13 metres (36 to 43 ft) in length,^[2] which means that Purussaurus is one of the largest known crocodilians ever to have existed. Two other extinct crocodilians, Sarcosuchus and Deinosuchus, have similar proportions, but both are geologically much older, dating from the Early and Late Cretaceous, respectively, and another from the Miocene of India, Rhamphosuchus, is estimated to be slightly smaller, though assumed to have been proportioned like a gharial. During the summer of 2005, a Franco-Peruvian expedition (the Fitzcarrald expedition) found new fossils of Purussaurus in the Peruvian Amazon (600 km from Lima).^{[citation needed]}

Paleoecology [edit]

Scale diagram showing the size of P. brasiliensis (red)

Brazilian P. brasiliensis is associated with sharks, rays, freshwater teleosts, lungfish, turtles including Stupendemys, crocodilians including Charactosuchus, Gryposuchus, and Mourasuchus, Anhinga birds, and mammals including sloths, bats, rodents, the primate Stirtonia, and river dolphins. River, floodplain, and lake environments were present.^[2] Marine and freshwater fish, turtles, crocodilians, and terrestrial and aquatic mammals are associated with Venezuelan P. mirandai. Its environment is described as tropical and coastal. The earlier Colombian P. neivensis lived alongside a massive variety of fauna, including astrapotheres like Granastrapotherium and Xenastrapotherium, the early species of Mourasuchus and Gryposuchus, and the terrestrial crocodilian Langstonia. This fauna dates from 13 million years ago, in the Laventan stage of the Late Miocene. ^[1]

Sources [edit]

^ ^a ^b Aguilera, O. A., Riff, D., and Bocquentin-Villanueva, J. (2006). "A new giant Purussaurus (Crocodyliformes, Alligatoridae) from the Upper Miocene Urumaco Formation, Venezuela." Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 4(3): 221–232.
^ ^a ^b Bocqentin, J., and Melo, J. (2006). "Stupendemys souzai sp. nov. (Pleurodira, Podocnemididae) from the Miocene–Pliocene of the Solimões Formation, Brazil." Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia 9(2): 187–192.

Rodrigues, J.B. 1892. "Les reptiles fossils de la Vallée de L’Amazone". Vellosia, Contribuições do Museu Botânico do Amazonas 2:41-60.
Langston, W. 1965. "Fossil crocodilians from Colombia and the Cenozoic history of the Crocodilia in South America". University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 52:1-169.

External links [edit]

Paleontology portal

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