Hoplosuchus

Hoplosuchus
Temporal range: Late Jurassic
Life restoration of Hoplosuchus kayi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Sauropsida
Superorder:
Crocodylomorpha
Order:
Crocodyliformes
Family:
Protosuchidae
Genus:
Hoplosuchus

Gilmore, 1926
Species
  • H. kayi Gilmore, 1926 (type)

Hoplosuchus is a genus of crocodyliform belonging to Protosuchidae. It is so far only known definitely from one specimen, a skeleton collected from sandstone of the Upper Jurassic-age Morrison Formation rocks at Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, during road construction. The individual was small, approximately 20 centimetres (7.9 in) long, although it may have been very young. It is the basalmost crocodyliform of the Morrison Formation, as suggested by such attributes as still having antorbital fenestrae in the skull. The limbs were relatively long, suggesting that the animal was terrestrial. Two rows of bony scutes ran down the back. The crowns of the teeth are not well preserved, so the diet cannot be determined with certainty. Given its small size, it probably ate insects and small vertebrates; it may have been carnivorous or omnivorous.[1]

  1. ^ Foster, John (2007). Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 155–156. ISBN 978-0-253-34870-8. OCLC 77830875.