A new genus and species of prehistoric crocodile, Paludirex wins, has been identified from fossils excavated in Queensland, Australia.
Paludirex wins belongs to Mekosuchinae, an extinct subfamily of crocodilians from Australia and the South Pacific. Image credit: University of Queensland.
Paludirex wins roamed the Earth during the Pliocene, between 5 and 2.5 million years ago.
Nicknamed the ‘swamp king’, he grew up to 5 m (16.4 feet) in length and was able to prey on giant prehistoric marsupials.
“Crocs have been an important part of Australian wildlife for millions of years,” said senior author Dr. Steve Salisbury, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland’s School of Biological Sciences, Brisbane.
“But the two types we have today – Crocodylus porosus and Crocodylus johnstoni – only recently arrived and were not part of the endemic crocodile fauna that existed here about 55 million years ago. “
“Or Paludirex wins extinct due to competition with species such as Crocodylus porosus is hard to say. “
“The alternative is that it died out as the climate dried up, and the river systems that once inhabited it shrink – we are currently exploring both scenarios.”
Paludirex wins, partial skull in anterior view: (A) unannotated photograph of the specimen as embedded in a concrete slab, and (B) annotated photograph, with the concrete slab digitally removed. Abbreviations: enfen – external narial fenestra, fro – frontal, als – sharp foramen, jar – jugal, lac – tear, max – maxilla, nas – nasal, or – orbit, par – parietal, pmx – premaxilla, po – postorbital, prf – prefrontal, so – supraoccipital, sq – squamosal, stfen – supratemporal fenestra. Image credit: Ristevski et al., doi: 10.7717 / peerj.10466.
Several fossilized copies of it Paludirex wins were discovered near the town of Chinchilla in south-east Queensland.
“The largest crocodile that is today is the Indo-Pacific crocodile, Crocodylus porosus, which grows to about the same size, ”said lead author Jorgo Ristevski, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.
“But Paludirex wins had a wider, heavier skull so it would have looked like an Indo-Pacific crocodile on steroids. “
The research was published this week in the journal PeerJ.
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J. Ristevski et al. 2020. Australia’s prehistoric ‘swamp king’: revision of the Plio-Pleistocene crocodile lineage Pallimnarchus de Vis, 1886. PeerJ 8: e10466; doi: 10.7717 / peerj.10466