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Submitted: April 1, 2010
Image Size: 4.9 MB
Resolution: 2251×6842

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Diversity of the Crurotarsiby *Eurwentala

Traditional Art / Drawings / Animals

Some examples of the diversity of the crocodile-line archosaurs or Crurotarsi. This group was very common and diverse in the Triassic, and only a bit less so in the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Many of them were highly specialized and seem to have been active, possibly even warm-blooded animals. The group has many interesting examples of convergent evolution with dinosaurs and other groups. Now only the modern crocodiles remain.

In this picture, from top to bottom:
Saltwater Crocodile, Crocodylus porosus. The largest modern species of crocodile. An opportunistic predator that can eat anything from water buffalo to sharks.
Yacarerari. Belongs to the Cretaceous group Notosuchia. It was a cat-sized animal with very unusual mammal-like teeth.
Metriorhynchus. Member of the completely aquatic group Thalattosuchia. It had a tail fin and it's limbs were modified into flippers. It might have been viviparous, since it's body plan sure doesn't look suitable for laying eggs on dry land. Thalattosuchians are strongly convergent with ichthyosaurs and dolphins.
Terrestrisuchus. A small, obviously cursorian Sphenosuchian that could have weighed around 15 kg. It might be a juvenile specimen of Saltoposuchus.
Postosuchus. A member of Rauisuchia. It might have been partly or completely bipedal, since it's front limbs are small and weak. It was a large predator that had very similar head and teeth as the tyrannosaurid dinosaurs.
Effigia. Another dinosaur-like rauisuchian. It was a fast-running, bipedal animal very similar to ornithomimosaurs (the ostrich-mimic dinosaurs). It even had a toothless beak.
Desmatosuchus. A triassic aetosaur with very impressive armour. It was a herbivore with a surprisingly pig-like head.
Rutiodon. A crocodile-like phytosaur. Despite their appearance, phytosaurs were not closely related to the modern crocodiles. They seem to be another example of convergent evolution.

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~NixKat Mar 4, 2013 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Cool.

*Eurwentala Mar 8, 2013

Thanks.

~Mechatherium Feb 17, 2012 Student Digital Artist

As for Metriorhynchus being viviparous, if hard evidence of that was found it would be fascinating. That would make it the only archosaur I know of that ever was.

*Eurwentala Feb 24, 2012

Yes, it would be really fascinating, though unlikely. I'd think that if viviparity was easy to evolve in archosaurs, it would have happened at least a few times, if not more than a hundred, as it has in squamates.

~Pristichampsus Oct 28, 2012 Professional General Artist

Thallatosuchian hindlegs are larger, but not huge, I imagine if a turtle can haul out and dig like that, surely a dako or geo could.

*Eurwentala Oct 31, 2012

True, but turtles are much smaller than the largest thalattosuchians: the biggest recorded leatherback turtles have been slightly more than 3 meters from head to tail. Plesiosuchus could reach 7. That would put it in the same size class with female orcas or pygmy right whales.

If they really could haul theirselves on dry land to lay eggs and get back to the ocean, they had to be indcredibly strong. And I don't think they could actually dig a nest to put the eggs into. The alternative, viviparity, doesn't seem likely either, but they had to breed somehow, right?

~Pristichampsus Oct 31, 2012 Professional General Artist

Pig-nosed turtle eggs are stimulated to hatch by the nest being flooded, so maybe thalattosuchians were partly ovoviparous, the young and eggs developed inside, and at hatching time, were ejected, the young would then react to the water and hatch...

~Ill-Fated-Jedi Oct 22, 2011

Great work. I wish you had included Stomatosuchus and Quinkana for a bit more crocodilian diversity, but I love your Notosuchid. Also I've heard rumours that we can't call them all Crurotarsi anymore because of the deviant nature of phytosaurs. [link]

*Eurwentala Oct 23, 2011

I read it too. It's a shame. Crurotarsi is a lot better name than Pseudosuchia. And Pseudosuchia doesn't make any sense anyway.

Maybe someone could just redefine Crurotarsi as anything that's closer to crocodiles than birds. Though I don't know enough about taxonomy to sya if it's possible.

These were drawn for a family tree published with an article about modern crocodile physiology, and so couldn't include all the cool cruro... umm, pseudosuchians, but I might do a larger family picture later. Stomatosuchus is especially interesting, and there are plenty of freaky notosuchids and baurusuchids too. And the sail-backed guys are missing also.

~Ill-Fated-Jedi Oct 23, 2011

Sadly I think the problem is that Phytosaurs have been found to be outside the archosaur branch, but being more of a bird person I'm not entirely certain of the technical issues to resolve.

It would be awesome if you could expand to include some of the wierder Cenozoic and later Mesozoic crocs, because apart from Arizonasaurus these are most of my favourites from the Triassic era and of course the salty for comparison.

Cheers

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