Trilophosuchus
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Trilophosuchus Temporal range: Early-Middle Miocene |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Crocodilia |
| Family: | Crocodylidae |
| Subfamily: | †Mekosuchinae |
| Genus: |
†Trilophosuchus Willis, 1993 |
| Type species | |
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†Trilophosuchus rackhami Willis, 1993 |
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Trilophosuchus ("Triple Crest Crocodile") is an extinct genus of mekosuchine crocodilian from Australia. Unlike living crocodilians, it is hypothesized to have been terrestrial. Trilophosuchus was approximately 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in length. It had a short skull with three ridges on top and large eyes. Fossils have been found at Riversleigh in north-western Queensland, and are Miocene in age. Only a single species has been described, the type species T. rackhami.
Trilophosuchus is known from a posterior portion of the skull, QM F16856, the holotype specimen. Several other isolated bones of the skull were found. The material was collected from the Ringtail Site of the Gag Plateau in Riversleigh, one of Australia's most famous fossil localities. The skull was uncovered in 1985 during an excavation by the University of New South Wales. The deposit in which Trilophosuchus were found are Early Miocene in age, roughly 20 million years old. The deposit, known as System C, is the youngest of the Oligocene-Miocene sequences at Riversleigh. The genus Trilophosuchus was erected in 1993 with the description of the remains by Paul Willis of the University of Sydney in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Trilophosuchus had a short, deep skull and relatively large eyes. Although only the skull is known, Trilophosuchus is estimated to have been around 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in length. Because of its small size, Trilophosuchus resembles the living dwarf crocodile, Osteolaemus, and caiman, Paleosuchus. It also resembles earlier crocodyliforms such as the notosuchians, atoposaurids, and protosuchians. Being a mekosuchine, Trilophosuchus was not closely related to any of these forms and likely acquired a short snout and small body through evolutionary convergence.
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