Paleontologists have described a brand new genus and species of metriorhynchid crocodylomorph from the Stadthagen Formation of north-western Germany.
An artist’s impression of Enalioetes schroederi. Picture credit score: Joschua Knüppe.
The newly-discovered crocodylomorph species lived within the shallow seas of Germany throughout the Early Cretaceous epoch, between 140 and 132 million years in the past.
Dubbed Enalioetes schroederi, the traditional reptile belonged to the household Metriorhynchidae.
“Metriorhynchids had easy scaleless pores and skin, flippers, and a tailfin,” defined Dr. Sven Sachs from the Naturkunde-Museum Bielefeld and his colleagues.
“They fed on quite a lot of prey, together with fast-moving animals like squids and fish, however some metriorhynchid species had giant, serrated enamel suggesting they consumed different marine reptiles.”
“They’re greatest recognized from the Jurassic interval, with their fossils changing into rarer within the Cretaceous.”
A wonderfully preserved cranium of Enalioetes schroederi was found greater than 100 years in the past by the German architect D. Hapke in a quarry in Sachsenhagen close to Hannover.
This specimen is the best-preserved metriorhynchid crocodylomorph recognized from the Cretaceous interval.
“The specimen is exceptional as it’s one only a few metriorhynchids that’s recognized by a three-dimensionally preserved cranium,” Dr. Sachs mentioned.
“This allowed us to CT scan the specimen and so we had been in a position to study rather a lot concerning the inner anatomy of those marine crocodiles.”
“The exceptional preservation allowed us to reconstruct the interior cavities and even the inside ears of the animal.”
Enalioetes schroederi offers paleontologists contemporary perception into how metriorhynchids had been evolving throughout the Cretaceous.
“Through the Jurassic metriorhynchids developed a body-plan radically completely different from different crocodiles — flippers, tailfin, lack of bony armor and easy scaleless pores and skin,” mentioned Dr. Mark Younger, a paleontologist on the College of Edinburgh.
“These modifications had been diversifications to an more and more marine way of life.”
“Enalioetes schroederi reveals us that this pattern continued into the Cretaceous, as Enalioetes schroederi even bigger eyes than different metriorhynchids — which had been already huge by crocodylian requirements — and the bony inside ears had been much more compact than different metriorhynchids, an indication that Enalioetes schroederi was most likely a quicker swimmer.”
The invention of Enalioetes schroederi is reported in a paper within the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
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Sven Sachs et al. 2024. A brand new genus of metriorhynchid crocodylomorph from the Decrease Cretaceous of Germany. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 22 (1): 2359946; doi: 10.1080/14772019.2024.2359946
