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🐊 12 Champsosaurus Fossil Vertebra - Prehistoric Fossilized Bone Vertebrae
$ 79.2
- Description
- Size Guide
Description
This is a beautiful set of 12 fossil vertebra from the prehistoric reptile called Champsosaurus from the Hell Creek Formation. The vertebrae are set in a riker mount.Great of teaching or for display! If you have any questions, please ask!
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Name:
Champsosaurus
(crocodile lizard.).
Phonetic:
Champ-so-sore-us.
Named By:
Edward Drinker Cope - 1877.
Synonyms:
Champsosaurus annectens, C. australis, C. brevicollis, C. inelegans, C. inflatus, C. profundus, C. puercensis.
Classification:
Chordata, Reptilia, Choristodera, Champsosauridae.
Species:
C. albertensis, C. australis, C. gigas, C. laramiensis, C. lindoei, C. lindoei, C. natator, C. tenuis.
Diet:
Carnivore/piscivore.
Size:
Depending upon the species, anywhere between 1.5 and 3.5 meters long.
Known locations:
Canada and the USA. Some fossil remains also reported from France.
Time period:
Turonian of the Cretaceous through to the Thanetian of the Paleocene.
Fossil representation:
Many individuals, some almost complete.
Although
Champsosaurus
looked like a crocodile and almost certainly lived like a
crocodile
, the genus was actually a member of the Choristodera. This is a separate group of diapsid reptiles which means that despite the physical similarity,
Champsosaurus
was not related to the modern crocodiles that we know today.
Out of all the modern types of crocodile,
Champsosaurus
is most similar to the gharial. The snout is long and thin which may indicate a specialisation for hunting smaller organisms such as fish. The rear proportion of the skull however is greatly expanded allowing the placement of very large jaw closing muscles. This may indicate that
Champsosaurus
had a surprisingly powerful bite given their narrow snouts. However an alternative explanation might be that the muscles were fast acting as opposed to powerful so that the jaws could close quickly around fast moving prey.
Champsosaurus
has a long taxonomic history that dates back all the way to the ‘bone wars’, a rivalry between Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope in North America during the late nineteenth century. At the time of writing there are currently seven recognised species of
Champsosaurus
, though in the past a great many more were once named. Almost one hundred and fifty years of study have seen some of these be identified as synonyms.
Many species of
Champsosaurus
were quite modest in size, though some, such as
C. gigas
could approach up three and a half meters in length.
