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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 19h

Boverisuchus meanwhile is a planocraniid, a family of Eusuchia (or maybe even Crocodilia) that ranged across essentially all of former Laurasia, with members having been found in the USA, Europe and China.
If you're unfamiliar with the name, its basically Pristichampsus

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 19h

Artwork by Scott Reid and Corbin Rainbolt
Despite shared terrestrial habits, the two are not related, with Bergisuchus being a member of the clade Notosuchia that managed to persist into the Cenozoic, tho the origins of European members remains somewhat nebulous

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 19h

Day 7 of #Croctober
The Messel Pit in Germany is well known for its fossil crocs, which includes not one but two distinct lineages of terrestrial forms.
On the one hand the sebecoid Bergisuchus dietrichbergi, on the other the eusuchian Boverisuchus magnifrons

A digitall painting of Boverisuchus by Corbin Rainbolt. The animal is shown barreling through the underbrush of an ancient rainforest, chasing down a tiny early horse. Compared to Bergisuchus the head is a lot more similar to modern crocs, although boxier and not as flattened.

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 20h

Thank you so much. I just enjoy sharing my passion in crocs where possible

Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 20h

I hate to say it but the pun did cross my mind at one point lmao

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 1d

Also big shout out to Adam Yates not just for his tireless croc research but also for thinking my recons were good enough to be included in that graphical explanation you see in the first post

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 1d

When you actually look at the material it's almost a no-brainer that they are from a single individual, but stuff like this is what makes the research history fun.
doi.org/10.26879/1355

Ultrastenos revised

A reinterpretation and taxonomic revision of Ultrastenos willisi Stein, Hand and Archer, 2016, a short-snouted mekosuchine crocodylian from the Oligocene of nor

doi.org

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 1d

Due to priority rules the animal got to keep the genus name Ultrastenos, but the species name was switched to the older "huberi" rather than willisi.
As a consequence the name aged horribly, as Ultrastenos was named under the assumption that it had long and narrow jaws

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 1d

#Croctober Day 6
Heres a fun one from a research history POV.
In 1997 researchers described a snout tip under the name Baru huberi and in 2016 skull elements were given the name Ultrastenos willisi
Only last year did we recognize that both fossils belonged to a single individual

An image created by Adam Yates comparing a photo of the "complete" cranial material of Ultrastenos huberi with prior interpretations of the material. At the bottom left sits a reconstruction of Ultrastenos willisi based on the 2016 interpretation of it as a narrow-snouted animal with a circle around the skull table and an arrow pointing to the skull table of the "completed" Ultrastenos skull in the middle. The top right corner shows a reconstruction of "Baru" huberi based on pre-2024 ideas of the animal. The snout tip is encircled and an arrow points towars the snout elements of the Ultrastenos huberi fossil. This shows how both individual fossils were once interpreted vs how it actually looked like put together. The finished fossil suggests a small animal with a fairly traditional looking crocodilian snout.

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 2d

doi.org/10.1080/0272...

A new freshwater teleosaurid from the Jurassic of northeastern Thailand

The core of the fossil record of Teleosauridae, a family of thalattosuchian crocodylomorphs, is well known from western Tethyan marine deposits of the Jurassic. Outside this province, their fossil ...

doi.org

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 2d

As depicted in the artwork above by Joschua Knüppe, we know of a mass death site that preserves a collection of multiple individuals (10 of varying ages in total). This may have been the result of the animals becoming trapped in a shrinking body of water during a drought.

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 2d

Give it up for #Croctober Day 5
While most frequently associated with coastal marine waters, teleosauroids thalattosuchians are also known to have lived in freshwater habitats.
A good example is Indosinosuchus from the Late Jurassic Phu Kradung Formation of Thailand

A group of three Indosinosuchus, appearing similar to modern gharials with typically "crocodilian" bodies and elongated snouts, huddled together in what used to be a body of water, now merely cracked mud. Over the horizon dry, orange vegetation is visible and a lone sauropod traverses the former wetlands

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Reposted by Armin Reindl

Emily Stepp @emilyart.bsky.social · 3d

#Paleoctober2025 day 4 paleoart sketch of the Holocene horned stem-turtle Meiolania.

#Paleoctober #Paleoart #Meiolania #StemTurtle

Painterly speedpaint of Meiolania eating leaves on the forest floor of Lord Howe Island in dappled lighting.

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 3d

Of course "juvenile" is a relative term, given that the material obviously belonged to an animal far beyond the hatchling stage with a skull length already rivaling the largest forms of today. Its still small by the standard of an animal that could reach 9 meters fully grown

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 3d

Day 4 of #Croctober, still going strong
When you mention Sarcosuchus the thing that pops into most people's mind is the giant adult skulls that are so often displayed, but we actually also have remains of "juveniles" too

Paleontologist Álvaro Simarro next to a juvenile Sarcosuchus skull in the field, still stuck in the ground. The skull is exposed around the eyes and skull table and towards the tip of the snout, with about half of the rostrum still burried. It is noticably more gracile than that of an adult and smaller, tho it's still longer than a man's torso.

The snout form of a juvenile compared to an adult Sarcosuchus from Sereno et al. 2001. The juvenile has noticably narrower jaws with a snout tip that is much less bulbous. The illustration also indicates that the juvenile skull is less heavily ornamented by pits and grooves compared to the surface of the adult skull.

The skull of a juvenile Sarcosuchus, partially exposed but still stuck in the ground, next to paleontologist Paul Sereno. It's the same skull as in the first image and measures approximatately as long as Sereno's legs. Photo courtesy of Paul Sereno's blog

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Reposted by Armin Reindl

Amypteride🏳️‍⚧️🔻🕷🦂 @amypteride.bsky.social · 4d

#paleoctober2025 day 4 : Meiolania !

This terrestrial turtle could reach way bigger sizes than our current galapagos ones, and is in fact an off shoot of a long gone lineage of turtles that diverged from our modern ones somewhen during the time of the dinosaurs.

a drawing of Meiolania, a huge extinct turtle with spikes on its shell and tail

a skeleton of Meiolania, showing the fused and spiked vertebrae at the end of the tail

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Reposted by Armin Reindl

Anthony Tackles Dead Cows @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 4d

It's the first ##FossilFriday for Croctober! Here is the prototype reconstruction of Deinosuchus schwimmeri, from the late Cretaceous of Georgia and other places around the south.

I finally got a Pic with me in it for scale so you can see just how huge this dead gator was.🐊🧪

Gigantic skeleton of a gator in the museum atrium with curator for scale

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 4d

For those that don't wanna go on twitter here is the link to the original study (which is also in the old thread I made)
doi.org/10.1080/0891...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2024.2364332

t.co

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Reposted by Armin Reindl

Anthony Tackles Dead Cows @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 4d

I finally put a human in for scale of the Deinosuchus

I'm not a good model but my bulk fills the maw of a giant fossil gator in one go

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 4d

I actually covered this discovery in a bit more detail on Twitter last year when it came out
x.com/ArminReindl/...

Armin Reindl on X: "Fascinating new paper today describing a sixth species of Caipirasuchus: C. catanduvensis The interesting part is the presence of complex pterygoid chambers that may have served as a resonance chamber during vocalisation. Artwork by Guilherme Gehr https://t.co/YXi4F99khV https://t.co/DPpZM82e9g" / X

Fascinating new paper today describing a sixth species of Caipirasuchus: C. catanduvensis The interesting part is the presence of complex pterygoid chambers that may have served as a resonance chamber during vocalisation. Artwork by Guilherme Gehr https://t.co/YXi4F99khV https://t.co/DPpZM82e9g

x.com

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 4d

Fittingly, we have direct evidence of them being preyed upon by baurusuchids, which in turn appear to have had a more complex ear structure and better hearing compared to modern crocs

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 4d

Today on #Croctober lets leave Neosuchia behind and go look at Notosuchia
There is some evidence that the genus Caipirasuchus possessed structures that may have functioned as resonating chambers, not unlike those of hadrosaurs or the antelope Rusingoryx
Art by Joschua Knüppe

An illustration by Joschua Knüppe featuring two small Caipirasuchus, which are small with tall, somewhat triangular heads, hiding under a tangle of roots from a large predatory baurusuchudid that looms above them. The baurusuchid has a boxy and elongated head with a blunter snout tip.

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 5d

Here of course the paper:
doi.org/10.2110/palo...

Crossref

Choose from multiple link options via Crossref

doi.org

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 5d

We don't know what killed the animal, but two hypotehsis propose that it may have either been a sudden drop in temperatures or egg binding

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Armin Reindl @arminreindl.bsky.social · 5d

A happy day 2 of #Croctober (lets see how long I can keep this going)
Crocs are well known for their parenting, but did you know that we even have fossils of them on their nest?
This specimen comes from Germany and clearly shows a Diplocynodon mother that died on her nest

A photograph and a line drawing of a fossil crocodilian (Diplocynodon) curled up above its nest. The head is moderately long and somewhat blunt and the body curles around the animal so that the tail curves around the skull. The illustration highlights the presence of several eggs surrounding the fossil.

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