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Sarcosuchus (/ ˌ s ɑːr k oʊ ˈ s uː k ə s /; lit. ' flesh crocodile ' ) is an extinct genus of crocodyliform and distant relative of living crocodilians that lived during the Early Cretaceous , from the late Hauterivian to the early Albian , 133 to 112 million years ago of what is now Africa and South America .
The name Pseudosuchia was originally given to a group of superficially crocodile-like prehistoric reptiles from the Triassic period, but fell out of use in the late 20th century, especially after the name Crurotarsi was established in 1990 to label the clade (evolutionary grouping) of archosaurs encompassing most reptiles previously identified as pseudosuchians.
The reasons Paraceratherium and its relatives became extinct after surviving for about 11 million years are unknown, but it is unlikely that there was a single cause. Theories include that their large size was related to the now outdated concept of inadaptive evolution , climate change , vegetational change, and low reproduction rate .
[47] [48] Brain expansion (enlargement) between 0.8 and 0.2 Ma may have occurred due to the extinction of most African megafauna (which made humans feed from smaller prey and plants, which required greater intelligence due to greater speed of the former and uncertainty about whether the latter were poisonous or not), extreme climate variability ...
Fossils from before the mass extinction have only been found around the Equator, but after the event fossils can be found all over the world. [13] Suggested explanations for this include: Archosaurs made more rapid progress towards erect limbs than synapsids, and this gave them greater stamina by avoiding Carrier's constraint .
In a mixed review, Riley Black wrote in the magazine Smithsonian, "In the end, Monsters Resurrected left me feeling very conflicted. It was wonderful to see scientists describing real fossil evidence and the minutiae of paleontology—in the wake of Walking with Dinosaurs-type shows, it's good to see scientists make a comeback.
A collaboration between Colossal Biosciences and conservationists plans to bring back the extinct dodo and reintroduce it to its once-native habitat in Mauritius.
Ichthyosauria [a] is an order of large extinct marine reptiles sometimes referred to as "ichthyosaurs", although the term is also used for wider clades in which the order resides. Ichthyosaurians thrived during much of the Mesozoic era; based on fossil evidence, they first appeared around 250 million years ago ( Ma ) and at least one species ...