''Stomatosuchus'' (type species ''S. inermis'') 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 nilotic ...

from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger 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 ''creta'', ...

( Cenomanian) of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. Much of what is known about ''Stomatosuchus'' has been inferred from the related

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 , ("cro ...

''.

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. This pouch however could have been used to scoop up fish and sharks much like a modern day pelican, the conical teeth would prevent the prey for escaping. Due to such a bizarre skull structure, much about the diet of ''S. inermis'' remains unknown. 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 (12 June 1871 in Nürnberg – 18 December 1952 in Erlangen) was a German paleontologist. He is best remembered for his expedition to Egypt, during which the first known remains of ''Spinosaurus'' we ...

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, which was later destroyed by an Allied bombing raid in 1944. Currently, only photographs of the specimen remain.

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 entire of Northern Africa but due to the only fossil evidence of Stomatosuchus being destroyed and no other bones being find it is impossible the guess.

Gallery

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

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

References

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 {{paleo-archosaur-stub