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Paleorhinus - not a croc!

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Here's the phytosaur Paleorhinus bransoni. It's clearly one of the long, slender snouted phytosaurs that probably ate more fish or small vertebrates than it did dicynodonts or early dinosaurs. If you are wondering what a phytosaur is, or why it's not a crocodilian, it's because archosaurmorphs produced a croc-like body plan (the phytosaurs) that were widespread in the Triassic before crocs could occupy that role.

In fact Triassic crocodilians were small, fast-running terrestrial animals with upright limbs - they didn't adopt the sprawling, semi-aquatic form we are familiar with now until later. So in a way phytosaurs were crocs before crocs were crocs!
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Szymoonio's avatar

A great reconstruction.

Questions regarding Paleorhinus/ Parasuchus terrestrial locomotion:

Did these phytosaurus have two ways of terrestrial locomotion sprawling and high walk? Did they keep their tail above the ground during high walk?