Suchosaurus facts for kids
Quick facts for kids SuchosaurusTemporal range: Early Cretaceous
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| Holotype tooth of S. cultridens | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Spinosauridae |
| Genus: | †Suchosaurus Owen, 1841 |
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Suchosaurus (meaning "crocodile lizard") is a carnivorous theropod dinosaur from Cretaceous England, it was mistaken for a genus of Crocodile when it was found. The first fossils were of its teeth, two species have been named so far.
History of discovery
In 1820, scientist Gideon Mantell got hold of some fossilized teeth discovered near East Sussex, and in 1822, the British naturalist William Clift identified them as crocodile teeth. Two years later in 1824, Georges Cuvier mentioned them in the first interpretation of a spinosaurid fossil. But at the time, paleontologists didn't know about the crocodile-like teeth of spinosaurids
In 1897 the second species "Suchosaurus girardi" was named, after two pieces of its jaw and one tooth were found in Portugal.
During the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century, scientists thought that Suchosaurus was probably some kind of obscure Crocodilian. But in 1998, paleontologist Angela Milner was publishing a new description of Baryonyx, and she realized that the teeth of that spinosaurid dinosaur were extremely similar to those from Suchosaurus. Later in 2003, she suggested that they could be the same animal. Suchosaurus teeth are also very close to the ones from Cristatusaurus and Suchomimus, all this means it has the general features of a member from the family Baryonychinae.
Images for kids
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Skeletal reconstruction of Baryonyx, which might be a junior synonym of Suchosaurus, Japan
See also
In Spanish: Suchosaurus para niños
