In the dinosaur-rich fossil beds of Morocco, dated to about 100 million years ago, scientists have discovered a strange new crocodile. A fossil was found of an upper and lower jaw preserved together, with oddly shaped teeth. At first, researchers thought it was the snout of a small mammal, but later determined that it belonged to a member of the crocodile-line of evolution. Hardly a monster, this little crocodile-relative would have been less than 2 feet (60 cm) in length.<\/p>\n
The new Moroccan fossil sported complex teeth with cusps and basins for crunching through the exoskeletons of insects, much like a small mammal would. Modern crocodiles have relatively simple conical teeth and cannot chew their food, instead swallowing their prey whole or in large chunks. The new crocodile-relative had far more specialized teeth.<\/p>\n
In order to study the specimen, the research team of Dr. Jeremy Martin (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique researcher at Laboratoire de G\u00e9ologie de Lyon) and Dr. France de Lapparent de Broin (Mus\u00e9um National d\u2019Histoire Naturelle, Paris) looked at high-resolution CT scans to study the bones\u2019 internal structure without having to destroy any of the fossil. The team also looked at the teeth under very high magnification in order to see the wear pattern and figure out how this odd \u2018crocodile\u2019 was using its teeth.<\/p>\n
The researchers named the new animal Lavocatchampsa sigogneaurussellae<\/em> after the French paleontologist Ren\u00e9 Lavocat (1909-2007) who worked extensively on African fossils, as well as Dr. Denise Sigogneau-Russell and husband Dr. Donald Russell who acquired the fossil. Dr. de Lapparent de Broin says \u201cIn the early 1990s, Cretaceous mammals were intensively searched for in Africa; until full preparation eventually revealed single-rooted teeth, it was hard to conceive that the specimen could belong to a crocodile\u201d.<\/p>\n Regarding the new find, lead author Dr. Martin says \u201cThe Kem Kem Beds in Morocco have yielded a wealth of extinct creatures, mostly large animals, but with this discovery we realize that part of the ecosystem remains untapped, especially when it comes to small-bodied terrestrial vertebrates\u201d.<\/p>\n Given this animal would have lived alongside giant carnivorous dinosaurs, life could not have been easy for the tiny \u2018crocodile\u2019. Not only that, but the waters were teeming with other species of much larger and highly carnivorous crocodile-relatives. Other researchers have suggested close relatives of Lavocatchampsa<\/em> likely lived on land. Perhaps at the time, it was safer under the feet of dinosaurs than in the water with its larger cousins. Dr. Martins adds \u201cThe next step will be to understand their place in this peculiar ecosystem and understand how the ecosystem as a whole was functioning and evolving. Such a discovery opens fascinating perspectives for paleoecological research\u201d.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n About the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Founded in 1940 by thirty-four paleontologists, the Society now has more than 2,300 members representing professionals, students, artists, preparators, and others interested in VP. It is organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes, with the object of advancing the science of vertebrate paleontology.\n<\/p>\n Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology<\/i>\n<\/p>\n The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology<\/i> (JVP) is the leading journal of professional vertebrate paleontology and the flagship publication of the Society. It was founded in 1980 by Dr. Jiri Zidek and publishes contributions on all aspects of vertebrate paleontology.<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n CITATION:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Martin, J. E., and F. de Lapparent de Broin. 2016. A miniature notosuchian with multicuspid teeth from the Cretaceous of Morocco. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology<\/i>. DOI: 10.1080\/02724634.2016.1211534.<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n AUTHOR CONTACT INFORMATION: <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Jeremy E. Martin<\/p>\n Laboratoire de G\u00e9ologie de Lyon: Terre, Plan\u00e8te, Environnement<\/p>\n UMR CNRS 5276 (CNRS, ENS, Universit\u00e9 Lyon 1)<\/p>\n Ecole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure de Lyon, 69364 Lyon cedex 07, France<\/p>\n jeremy.martin@ens-lyon.fr<\/p>\n France de Lapparent de Broin<\/p>\n Sorbonne Universit\u00e9s<\/p>\n CR2P-MNHN, CNRS, UPMC, Paris 6<\/p>\n Mus\u00e9um national d\u2019Histoire naturelle<\/p>\n 57 rue Cuvier, CP 38, 75231 Paris cedex 05, France<\/p>\n fdelap@mnhn.fr<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n OTHER EXPERTS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH STUDY:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Felipe C. Montefeltro<\/p>\n Departamento de Biologia e Zootecnia<\/p>\n FEIS-UNESP, 226 Rua Mon\u00e7\u00e3o, Ilha Solteira,<\/p>\n S\u00e3o Paulo 15385-000, Brazil.<\/p>\n Phone: 55-18-37431982;<\/p>\n fcmontefeltro@bio.feis.unesp.br<\/p>\n Lucas Fiorelli<\/p>\n Centro Regional de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas y Transferencia Tecnol\u00f3gica (CRILAR)<\/p>\n Entre R\u00edos y Mendoza s\/n, 5301<\/p>\n Anillaco, La Rioja, Argentina<\/p>\n lucasfiorelli@gmail.com<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n FIGURES:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Figure 1: CT scan images of the skull of Lavocatchampsa sigogneaurussellae<\/em>. <\/p>\n Figure 2: The skull of a modern crocodile with typical conical teeth (A), the fossil skull of the new crocodile-relative, Lavocatchampsa sigogneaurussellae<\/em> (B) and the unusual teeth of the new \u2018crocodile\u2019, taken from high resolution CT scans (C). <\/p>\n Figure 3: Overview of the Kem Kem area in Morocco, where the new fossil crocodile-relative, Lavocatchampsa sigogneaurussellae<\/em>, was found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the dinosaur-rich fossil beds of Morocco, dated to about 100 million years ago, scientists have discovered a strange new crocodile. A fossil was found of an upper and lower jaw preserved together, with oddly shaped teeth. At first, researchers thought it was the snout of a small mammal, but later determined that it belonged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}