A new genus and species of prehistoric crocodile, Paludirex winner, has been identified from fossils discovered in Queensland, Australia.
Paludirex winner belongs to Mekosuchinae, an extinct subfamily of crocodilians from Australia and the South Pacific. Image Credit: University of Queensland.
Paludirex winner roamed the Earth in the Pliocene, between 5 and 2.5 million years ago.
Nicknamed the “king of the swamp”, it grew up to 5 m in length and was able to prey on giant prehistoric marsupials.
“Crocs have been an important component of Australian wildlife for millions of years,” said lead author Dr. Steve Salisbury, a paleontologist at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.
“But the two species we have today – Crocodylus porosus and Crocodylus johnstoni – These are only recent arrivals and were not part of the endocrine fauna of the crocus that existed here about 55 million years ago. “
“If Paludirex winner disappeared as a result of competition with species such as Crocodylus porosus it’s hard to say. “
“The alternative is that it has disappeared as the climate has dried up, and the river systems it once inhabited have contracted – we are currently investigating both scenarios.”
Paludirex winner, partially skull in ventral view: (A) unannotated photograph of the specimen as embedded in a concrete slab and (B) annotated photograph with the concrete slab removed digitally. Abbreviations: enfen – external narial window, fro – frontal, if – incisive foramen, jug – jugal, lac – lacrimal, max – maxillary, nasal – nasal, or – orbit, par – parietal, pmx – premaxilla, po – postorbital, prf – prefrontal, deci – supraoccipital, sq – squamosal, stfen – supratemporal window. Image credit: Ristevski et al., doi: 10.7717 / peerj.10466.
Several fossilized specimens of Paludirex winner were discovered near the town of Chinchilla in southeast Queensland.
“The largest crocodile today is the Indo-Pacific crocodile, Crocodylus porosus, which grows to about the same size, “said lead author Jorgo Ristevski, a PhD candidate for the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.
“But Paludirex winner he had a wider and heavier skull, so he looked like an Indo-Pacific crocodile on steroids. “
The study was published in the journal this week PeerJ.
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J. Ristevski et al. 2020. Australia’s prehistoric “swamp king”: a review of the Plio-Pleistocene crocodile genus Pallimnarchus de Vis, 1886. PeerJ 8: e10466; doi: 10.7717 / peerj.10466