"Thoracosaurus is an enormous marine crocodylomorph that lived in the shallow seas of both North America and Europe during the Cretaceous and Paleocene. With its long, thin snout and conical teeth suited for snatching fish, this animal is similar in appearance to the modern gharial of India. It also resembles the coeval Champsosaurus in this regard, but is unrelated to both. Instead Thoracosaurus is a Eusuchian, just outside the group including living crocodilians. Thoracosaurus is the rarest of the Hell Creek Eusuchians and also the largest, with some specimens reaching up to 9 meters in length."
―Saurian: A Field Guide to Hell Creek
Thoracosaurus was a genus of crocodylomorph that existed during the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene. It was between four and five meters in length, or more depending of the species, being argued that some could reach exceeding lengths of eight meters, being the biggest crocodylomorph known from the Hell Creek Formation. It seems to have lived in saltwater environments.
It contains the species Thoracosaurus neocesariensis in North America and Thoracosaurus isorhynchus in Europe. A number of species have been referred to this genus, but most are dubious, and only three are considered as valid for now.
It likely would have lived like a modern false gharial based on the similar jaws. False gharials catch fish by waiting for them to pass by and catching them by quickly whipping their heads sideways. Although, despite Thoracosaurus has been largely considered a gavialoid, very recent studies seem to suggest that the simillarities between Thoracosaurus and gavialids are just a product of convergent evolution, and that Thoracosaurus may actually not have been a crocodilian as previously expected, being a stem-crocodilian instead, more related to the contemporaneous Borealosuchus, also believed to be a stem-crocodilian, under the same study.
In Saurian[]
Thoracosaurus is expected to appear in Saurian, as revealed in a livestream[1]. It is dark brown with a tan belly and striping on the sides.
Behind the scenes[]
The model of Thoracosaurus was sculpted by Jake Baardse.[1]
The color seems to be based on its relative, the false gharial.
Gallery[]
