''Stomatosuchus'' (meaning "mouth crocodile") is an extinct stomatosuchid

neosuchian Neosuchia is a clade within Mesoeucrocodylia that includes all modern extant crocodilians and their closest fossil relatives. It is defined as the most inclusive clade containing all crocodylomorphs more closely related to ''Crocodylus niloticus' ...

from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent 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 ''cre ...

(

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...

)

Bahariya Formation The Bahariya Formation (also transcribed as Baharija Formation) is a List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Egypt, fossiliferous Formation (stratigraphy), geologic formation dating back to the early Cenomanian, which outcrops within the Baha ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. The type and only species is ''S. inermis''. Much of what is known about ''Stomatosuchus'' has been inferred from the related

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Laganosuchus ''Laganosuchus'' is an extinct genus of stomatosuchid crocodyliform. Fossils have been found from Niger and Morocco and date back to the Upper Cretaceous. Discovery The name means "pancake crocodile" from the Greek , ("pancake") and , ("croc ...

''.

Discovery and naming

The only known specimen of ''S. inermis'' consisted of a partial skull and two caudal vertebrae. It was collected in Egypt during 1911 by the German paleontologist

Ernst Stromer Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach (born on 12th of June, 1871 in Nürnberg, died on 18th of December, 1952 in Erlangen) was a German paleontologist best remembered for his expedition to Egypt, during which the discovery of the first kno ...

whilst on an expedition.Stromer, E. (1925)
Ergebnisse der Forschungsreisen Prof. E. Stromers in den Wüsten Ägyptens. II. Wirbeltier-Reste der Baharije-Stufe (unterstes Cenoman). 7. ''Stomatosuchus inermis'' Stromer, ein schwach bezahnter Krokodilier und 8. Ein Skelettrest des Pristiden ''Onchopristis numidus'' Haug sp.
Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Abteilung 30(6): 1–22. It was delivered to the Munich Museum in 1922, and the museum was later destroyed by an Allied bombing raid on 24/25 April 1944. Currently, only photographs of the specimen remain.

Description

It grew to a length of , and possessed a long, flattened skull with lid-like jaws that were lined with small, conical teeth, and the skull reached up to long. The mandible may have been toothless and perhaps even supported a pelican-like

throat pouch Gular skin (throat skin), in ornithology, is an area of featherless skin on birds that joins the lower mandible of the beak (or ''bill'') to the bird's neck. Other vertebrate taxa may have a comparable anatomical structure that is referred to as ...

.Naish, D. 2002
Fossils explained 34: Crocodilians
''Geology Today'' 2: 71-77
Archived copy
from 24 January 2019. However, this pouch could have been used to scoop up fish and sharks much like a modern day pelican, while the conical teeth would prevent the prey from escaping. Due to such a bizarre skull structure, much about the diet of ''S. inermis'' remains unknown.

Habitat

It is likely that ''S. inermis'' lived in the marshy lowlands of what is now the Eastern Sahara Desert. It may have populated the entirety of Northern Africa but due to the only fossil evidence of the species being destroyed and no other bones having been found since, it is impossible to establish an exact range.

Gallery

Stomatosuchus inermis.jpg, Comparison of ''Stomatosuchus'' (center) with ''

Retodus ''Retodus'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric lungfish found in Cretaceous-aged freshwater strata of Egypt ( Baharija Formation), Algeria and Niger. The type species, ''R. tuberculatus'', was named in 2006.Churcher, Charles & De Iuliis, Gerry & ...

'' (top) ''

'' (bottom) File:Stomatosuchus skull.png, Skull seen from two angles File:Stomatosuchus skull Stromer 1925jpg.jpg, Holotype skull

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q136860 Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Africa Bahariya Formation Cenomanian genera Taxa named by Ernst Stromer Fossil taxa described in 1925 Prehistoric marine crocodylomorphs Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera Cretaceous Egypt Taxa with lost type specimens