Postosuchus
Genus of reptiles / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Postosuchus?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Postosuchus, meaning "Crocodile from Post", is an extinct genus of rauisuchid reptiles comprising two species, P. kirkpatricki and P. alisonae, that lived in what is now North America during the Late Triassic. Postosuchus is a member of the clade Pseudosuchia, the lineage of archosaurs that includes modern crocodilians (the other main group of archosaurs is Avemetatarsalia, the lineage that includes all archosaurs more closely related to birds than to crocodilians). Its name refers to Post Quarry, a place in Texas where many fossils of the type species, P. kirkpatricki, were found. It was one of the apex predators of its area during the Triassic, larger than the small dinosaur predators of its time (such as Coelophysis). It was a hunter which probably preyed on large bulky herbivores like dicynodonts and many other creatures smaller than itself (such as early dinosaurs).[1]
Postosuchus | |
---|---|
Skeleton at the Museum of Texas Tech University, near Post, Texas | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauria |
Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
Family: | †Rauisuchidae |
Genus: | †Postosuchus Chatterjee, 1985 |
Type species | |
†Postosuchus kirkpatricki Chatterjee, 1985 | |
Species | |
|
The skeleton of Postosuchus is large and robust with a deep skull and a long tail. It was a large animal up to 5–6 m (16–20 ft) long or even more.[2][3] The extreme shortness of the forelimbs relative to the hind limbs, the very small hands, and measurements of the vertebrae suggest that Postosuchus may have been committed to bipedal locomotion.[3]