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Phytosaur Skull (Pseudopalatus mccauleyi)
Chinle Formation, Late Triassic Period
L 106, W 49 (at base of skull, caudal end), cm
PEFO 31219
Petrified Forest National Park
Photo Credit: T. Scott Williams, NPS, Petrified Forest NP |
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This skull is from a phytosaur, a meat-eating reptile that lived 225 million years ago on a vast stream-crossed floodplain in what is now northern Arizona. Crocodile-like reptiles, giant fish-eating amphibians, and small dinosaurs lived among a variety of ferns, cycads, and other plants and animals that are known today only from fossils. Paleontologists discovered this fossil, Pseudopalatus mccauleyi, in 1985 and excavated it in 1986. They are preparing the fossil to make it accessible for research and exhibit at Rainbow Forest Museum in Petrified Forest National Park. Phytosaurs look like modern crocodiles, but are not related. They were 15-17 feet long with a long tail and short, stout legs. With bony plates for body protection and sharp teeth, they were successful predators on land and in water. Nostrils just in front of their eyes allowed them to float in shallow waters and still breathe. Several additional phytosaur species have been found in Petrified Forest National Park, including Leptosuchus (Smilosuchus) gregorii and Leptosuchus pseudopalatus. Petrified Forest National Park is one of the world's greatest storehouses of knowledge about life on earth when the "Age of the Dinosaurs" was just beginning.
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