extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

crocodyliform Crocodyliformes is a clade of crurotarsan archosaurs, the group often traditionally referred to as "crocodilians". They are the first members of Crocodylomorpha to possess many of the features that define later relatives. They are the only pseu ...

crocodilia Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period ( Cenomanian stage) and are the closest livi ...

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145& ...

Hauterivian The Hauterivian is, in the geologic timescale, an age in the Early Cretaceous Epoch or a stage in the Lower Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 132.9 ± 2 Ma and 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago). The Hauterivian is preceded by th ...

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0 ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...

teeth A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, ...

scute A scute or scutum (Latin: ''scutum''; plural: ''scuta'' "shield") is a bony external plate or scale overlaid with horn, as on the shell of a turtle, the skin of crocodilians, and the feet of birds. The term is also used to describe the anterior po ...

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesCEA, but it was not until 1997 and 2000 that most of its anatomy became known to science, when an expedition led by the American

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Paul Sereno Paul Callistus Sereno (born October 11, 1957) is a professor of paleontology at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic "explorer-in-residence" who has discovered several new dinosaur species on several continents, including at si ...

discovered six new specimens, including one with about half the

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

intact and most of the

spine Spine or spinal may refer to: Science Biology * Vertebral column, also known as the backbone * Dendritic spine, a small membranous protrusion from a neuron's dendrite * Thorns, spines, and prickles, needle-like structures in plants * Spine (zoolo ...

.

Description

''Sarcosuchus'' was a giant relative of

crocodile Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant me ...

s, with fully grown individuals estimated to have reached up to in total length and in weight. It had somewhat telescoped eyes and a long snout comprising 75% of the length of the skull. There were 35 teeth in each side of the upper jaw, while in the lower jaw there were 31 teeth in each side. The upper jaw was also noticeably longer than the lower one leaving a gap between them when the jaws were shut, creating an overbite. In young individuals the shape of the snout resembled that of the living

gharial The gharial (''Gavialis gangeticus''), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are long, and males . Adult males have a distinct ...

but in fully grown individuals it became considerably broader.

Bulla

''Sarcosuchus'' has an expansion at the end of its snout known as a bulla, which has been compared with the ghara seen in

gharial The gharial (''Gavialis gangeticus''), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are long, and males . Adult males have a distinct ...

s. However, unlike the ghara, which is only found in male gharial, the bulla is present in all ''Sarcosuchus'' skulls that have been found so far, suggesting that it was not a

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

trait. The purpose of this structure is not known.

Osteoderms

The osteoderms, also known as dermal scutes, of ''Sarcosuchus'' were similar to those goniopholodids like ''

Sunosuchus ''Sunosuchus'' is an extinct genus of goniopholidid mesoeucrocodylian. Fossils are known from China, Kyrgyzstan, and Thailand and are Jurassic in age, although some may be Early Cretaceous. Four species are currently assigned to the genus: the ...

'' and ''

Goniopholis ''Goniopholis'' (meaning "angled scale") is an extinct genus of goniopholidid crocodyliform that lived in Europe and Africa during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Being semi-aquatic it is very similar to modern crocodiles. It ranged fr ...

''; they formed an uninterrupted surface that started in the posterior part of the neck up to the middle of the tail like is seen in '' Araripesuchus'' and other basal crocodyliforms, different from the pattern seen in living crocodiles, which present discontinuity between the osteoderms of the neck and body.

Size

A common method to estimate the size of crocodiles and crocodile-like reptiles is the use of the length of the skull measured in the midline from the tip of the snout to the back of the skull table, since in living crocodilians there is a strong correlation between skull length and total body length in subadult and adult individuals irrespective of their sex, this method was used by Sereno ''et al.'' (2001) for ''Sarcosuchus'' due to the absence of a complete enough skeleton. Two regression equations were used to estimate the size of ''S. imperator'', they were created based on measurements gathered from 17 captive

gharial The gharial (''Gavialis gangeticus''), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are long, and males . Adult males have a distinct ...

individuals from northern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and from 28 wild

saltwater crocodile The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats and brackish wetlands from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaic region to northern Australia and Micronesia. It has been l ...

individuals from northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, both datasets supplemented by available measurements of individuals over in length found in the literature. The largest known skull of ''S. imperator'' (the type specimen) is long ( in the midline), and it was estimated that the individual it belonged to had a total body length of , its snout-vent length of was estimated using linear equations for the saltwater crocodile and in turn this measurement was used to estimate its body weight at . This shows that ''Sarcosuchus'' was able to reach a maximum body size not only greater than previously estimated but also greater than that of the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

'' Rhamphosuchus'', the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

''

Deinosuchus ''Deinosuchus'' () is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian, related to modern alligators and caimans, that lived 82 to 73 million years ago (Ma), during the late Cretaceous period. The name translates as "terrible crocodile" and i ...

'' and the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

'' Purussaurus'' according to current estimates at that time. However, extrapolation from the femur of a subadult individual as well as measurements of the skull width further showed that the largest ''S. imperator'' was significantly smaller than was estimated by Sereno ''et al.'' (2001) based on modern crocodilians. O’Brien ''et al.'' (2019) estimated the length of the largest ''S. imperator'' specimen at and body weight at based on longirostrine crocodylians skull width to total length and body width ratio. This estimate is very close to the femur based estimate ().

Classification

''Sarcosuchus'' is commonly classified as part of the clade

Pholidosauridae Pholidosauridae is an extinct family of aquatic neosuchian mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs. Fossils have been found in Europe (Denmark, England, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden), Africa (Algeria, Niger, Mali, Morocco and Tunisia), North ...

, a group of crocodile-like reptiles (

Crocodyliformes Crocodyliformes is a clade of crurotarsan archosaurs, the group often traditionally referred to as "crocodilians". They are the first members of Crocodylomorpha to possess many of the features that define later relatives. They are the only pse ...

) related but outside Crocodylia (the clade containing living crocodiles, alligators and gharials). Within this group it is most closely related to the

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

n genus '' Terminonaris''. Most members of Pholidosauridae had long, slender snouts and they all were aquatic, inhabiting several different environments, some forms are interpreted as marine, capable of tolerating

saltwater Saline water (more commonly known as salt water) is water that contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (mainly sodium chloride). On the United States Geological Survey (USGS) salinity scale, saline water is saltier than brackish water, ...

while others, like ''Sarcosuchus'', were freshwater forms, the most primitive members of the clade, however, were found in coastal settings, zones of mixing of freshwater and marine waters. ''Sarcosuchus'' stands out among pholidosaurids for being considered a generalist predator, different from most known members of the clade which were specialized piscivores. A 2019 study found it to be in a more derived position in Tethysuchia, being phylogenetically closer to

Dyrosauridae Dyrosauridae is a family of extinct neosuchian crocodyliforms that lived from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to the Eocene. Dyrosaurid fossils are globally distributed, having been found in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South Ame ...

. Simplified cladogram after Fortier ''et al.'' (2011).

Discovery and naming

Early findings

During the course of several expeditions on the Sahara from 1946 to 1959 which were led by the French paleontologist Albert-Félix de Lapparent, several fossils of a crocodyliform of large size were unearthed in the region known as the Continental Intercalaire Formation. Some of them were found in Foggara Ben Draou, in

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

and near the town of Aoulef,

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

(informally named as the Aoulef Crocodile) while others came from the Ain el Guettar Formation of Gara Kamboute. In the south of

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, the fossils found were fragments of the skull, teeth,

scute A scute or scutum (Latin: ''scutum''; plural: ''scuta'' "shield") is a bony external plate or scale overlaid with horn, as on the shell of a turtle, the skin of crocodilians, and the feet of birds. The term is also used to describe the anterior po ...

s and vertebrae. In 1957, in the region now known as the Elrhaz Formation, several isolated teeth of great size were found by H. Faure. The study of this material by French paleontologist France De Broin helped identify them as coming from a new long snouted crocodile. Later, in 1964, the research team of the French CEA discovered an almost complete skull in the region of

Gadoufaoua The Elrhaz Formation is a geological formation in Niger, central Africa. Its strata date back to the Early Cretaceous, about 125 to 112 million years ago. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, alongsi ...

in the Niger. The said skull was shipped to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

for study and became the holotype of the then new genus and species ''Sarcosuchus imperator'' in 1966.

Fossils from Brazil

In 1977, a new species of ''Sarcosuchus'' was recognised, ''S. hartti'', from remains found in the late 19th century in late

Hauterivian The Hauterivian is, in the geologic timescale, an age in the Early Cretaceous Epoch or a stage in the Lower Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 132.9 ± 2 Ma and 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago). The Hauterivian is preceded by th ...

pebbly conglomerates and green shales belonging to the Ilhas Group in the Recôncavo Basin of north-eastern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. In 1867, American naturalist Charles Hartt found two isolated teeth and sent them to the American paleontologist O. C. Marsh who erected a new species of ''Crocodylus'' for them, ''C. hartti.'' This material, along with other remains were assigned in 1907 to the genus ''

Goniopholis ''Goniopholis'' (meaning "angled scale") is an extinct genus of goniopholidid crocodyliform that lived in Europe and Africa during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Being semi-aquatic it is very similar to modern crocodiles. It ranged fr ...

'' as ''G. hartti''. Now residing in the

British Museum of Natural History The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum ...

, the fragment of the lower jaw, dorsal scute and two teeth compromising the species ''G. hartti'' were reexamined and conclusively placed in the genus ''Sarcosuchus''.

Recent findings

The next major findings occurred during the expeditions led by the American paleontologist

Paul Sereno Paul Callistus Sereno (born October 11, 1957) is a professor of paleontology at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic "explorer-in-residence" who has discovered several new dinosaur species on several continents, including at si ...

in 1995 ( Aoufous Formation,

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

), 1997 and the follow-up trip in 2000. Partial skeletons, numerous skulls and 20 tons of assorted other fossils were recovered from the deposits of the Elrhaz Formation, which has been dated as late Aptian or early

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0 ...

stage Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * Sta ...

s of the Late Cretaceous. It took about a year to prepare the ''Sarcosuchus'' remains. Fossils were found in 2010 in the Ifezouane Formation of Morocco. Fossil teeth from the area of

Nalut Nalut (sometimes Lalút) ( ar, نالوت) is the capital of the Nalut District in Libya. Nalut lies approximately halfway between Tripoli and Ghadames, at the western end of the Nafusa Mountains coastal range, in the Tripolitania region. The ...

in northwestern

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

, possibly

Hauterivian The Hauterivian is, in the geologic timescale, an age in the Early Cretaceous Epoch or a stage in the Lower Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 132.9 ± 2 Ma and 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago). The Hauterivian is preceded by th ...

to

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is precede ...

in age, might be referable to ''S. imperator''. Indeterminate ''Sarcosuchus'' material including dorsal osteoderms in anatomical connection, isolated teeth and fragmentary skeletal remains including a left scapula, mandible fragment, dorsal vertebrae, ilium and a proximal portion of a femur was described from the Oum Ed Dhiab Member in Tunisia in 2018.

Paleobiology

Growth pattern

Sereno took thin sections from trunk osteoderms of an estimated subadult individual (~80% of estimated maximum adult size). Approximately 40 lines of arrested growth (LAG) were counted in these thin sections, suggesting that ''S. imperator'' took 50 to 60 years to reach adult size. Given that extant wild crocodylians rarely reach these advanced ages, Sereno suggested that ''S. imperator'' achieved its large size by extending its period of rapid, juvenile, growth. A similar growth strategy has been suggested for the equally titanic crocodylian ''

Deinosuchus ''Deinosuchus'' () is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian, related to modern alligators and caimans, that lived 82 to 73 million years ago (Ma), during the late Cretaceous period. The name translates as "terrible crocodile" and i ...

'', based on similar criteria.

Diet

Based on the broader snout of fully grown ''S. imperator ''when compared with the living

gharial The gharial (''Gavialis gangeticus''), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are long, and males . Adult males have a distinct ...

and other narrow-snouted crocodiles, along with a lack of interlocking of the smooth and sturdy-crowned teeth when the jaws were closed, Sereno ''et al.'' hypothesized that ''S. imperator'' had a generalized diet similar to that of the

Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern, ...

, which would have included large terrestrial prey such as the abundant dinosaurs that lived in the same region. However, a 2014 analysis of a biomechanical model of its skull suggested that unlike ''Deinosuchus'', ''Sarcosuchus'' may not have been able to perform the "death roll" maneuver used by extant crocodilians to dismember their prey. This suggests that if ''S. imperator'' did hunt big game, it probably did not dismember prey in the same fashion as extant crocodilians.

Habitat

The remains of ''S. imperator'' were found in a region of the

Ténéré Desert The Ténéré (Tuareg: Tenere, literally: "desert") is a desert region in the south central Sahara. It comprises a vast plain of sand stretching from northeastern Niger into western Chad, occupying an area of over . The Ténéré's boundaries a ...

named Gadoufaoua, more specifically in the Elrhaz Formation of the Tegama Group, dating from the late Aptian to the early

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0 ...

of the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145& ...

, approximately 112 million years ago. The stratigraphy of the region and the aquatic fauna that was found therein indicates that it was an inland fluvial environment, entirely freshwater in nature with a humid tropical climate. ''S. imperator'' shared the waters with the

holostean Holostei is a group of ray-finned bony fish. It is divided into two major clades, the Halecomorphi, represented by a single living species, the bowfin ('' Amia calva''), as well as the Ginglymodi, the sole living representatives being the gars ...

fish ''

Lepidotus ''Lepidotes'' (from el, λεπιδωτός , 'covered with scales') (previously known as ''Lepidotus'') is an extinct genus of Mesozoic ray-finned fish. It has been considered a wastebasket taxon, characterised by "general features, such as th ...

'' and the coelacanth '' Mawsonia''. The dinosaur fauna was represented by the iguanodontian '' Lurdusaurus'', which was the most common dinosaur in the region, and its relative '' Ouranosaurus''; there were also two sauropods, ''

Nigersaurus ''Nigersaurus'' is a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived during the middle Cretaceous period, about 115 to 105 million years ago. It was discovered in the Elrhaz Formation in an area called Gadoufaoua, in Niger. Fossils of th ...

'' and a currently unnamed sauropod while the theropod fauna included the spinosaurid '' Suchomimus,'' the carcharodontosaurid '' Eocarcharia'' and the abelisaurid ''

Kryptops ''Kryptops'' is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Niger. It is known from a partial skeleton found at the Gadoufaoua locality in the western Ténéré Desert, in rocks of the Aptian-Albian age Elrhaz Formation ...

''. Meanwhile, ''S. hartti'' was found in the Recôncavo Basin of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, specifically in the Ilhas Formation of the Bahia series. It was a shallow

lacustrine A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

environment dating from the late Aptian, similar in age to the habitat of ''S. imperator'', with similar aquatic fauna, including ''Lepidotus'' and two species of ''Mawsonia''. The dinosaur fauna is of a very fragmentary nature and identification does not go beyond indeterminate theropod and iguanodontid remains.

References

Bibliography

*

External links

*
African fossil find: 40-foot crocodile
. Guy Gugliotta. ''Washington Post'', October 26, 2001. Retrieved November 17, 2004. *

'. Gabrielle Lyon. Retrieved November 17, 2004. *

. D. L. Parsell. ''National Geographic News'', October 25, 2001. Retrieved November 17, 2004. *

'. Paul C. Sereno. Retrieved November 17, 2004. *

. John Roach. ''National Geographic News'', April 4, 2003. Retrieved November 17, 2004. *
Sereno, team discover prehistoric giant Sarcosuchus imperator in African desert
" Steve Koppes. ''The University of Chicago Chronicle'', volume 21, number 4, November 1, 2001. Retrieved November 17, 2004.

{{Taxonbar, from=Q131134 Neosuchians Early Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Africa Fossils of Algeria Fossils of Mali Fossils of Morocco Fossils of Niger Fossils of Tunisia Early Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of South America Cretaceous Brazil Fossils of Brazil Fossil taxa described in 1966 Taxa named by Philippe Taquet Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera