Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of metriorhynchid crocodylomorph from the Stadthagen Formation of north-western Germany.
An artist’s impression of Enalioetes schroederi. Image credit: Joschua Knüppe.
The newly-discovered crocodylomorph species lived in the shallow seas of Germany during the Early Cretaceous epoch, between 140 and 132 million years ago.
Dubbed Enalioetes schroederi, the ancient reptile belonged to the family Metriorhynchidae.
“Metriorhynchids had smooth scaleless skin, flippers, and a tailfin,” explained Dr. Sven Sachs from the Naturkunde-Museum Bielefeld and his colleagues.
“They fed on a variety of prey, including fast-moving animals like squids and fish, but some metriorhynchid species had large, serrated teeth suggesting they fed on other marine reptiles.”
“They are best known from the Jurassic period, with their fossils becoming rarer in the Cretaceous.”
A perfectly preserved skull of Enalioetes schroederi was discovered more than a hundred years ago by the German architect D. Hapke in a quarry in Sachsenhagen near Hannover.
This specimen is the best-preserved metriorhynchid crocodylomorph known from the Cretaceous period.
“The specimen is remarkable as it is one very few metriorhynchids that is known by a three-dimensionally preserved skull,” Dr. Sachs said.
“This allowed us to CT scan the specimen and so we were able to learn a lot about the internal anatomy of these marine crocodiles.”
“The remarkable preservation allowed us to reconstruct the internal cavities and even the inner ears of the animal.”
Enalioetes schroederi gives paleontologists fresh insight into how metriorhynchids were evolving during the Cretaceous.
“During the Jurassic metriorhynchids evolved a body-plan radically different from other crocodiles — flippers, tailfin, loss of bony armor and smooth scaleless skin,” said Dr. Mark Young, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh.
“These changes were adaptations to an increasingly marine lifestyle.”
“Enalioetes schroederi shows us that this trend continued into the Cretaceous, as Enalioetes schroederi even larger eyes than other metriorhynchids — which were already big by crocodylian standards — and the bony inner ears were even more compact than other metriorhynchids, a sign that Enalioetes schroederi was probably a faster swimmer.”
The discovery of Enalioetes schroederi is reported in a paper in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
_____
Sven Sachs et al. 2024. A new genus of metriorhynchid crocodylomorph from the Lower Cretaceous of Germany. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 22 (1): 2359946; doi: 10.1080/14772019.2024.2359946
Source : Breaking Science News