PaleoMexico Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 What kind of crocodile do you think it is? Alligator, Caiman, or another crocodile? The material is from the Mexican Pleistocene, I will not say location to avoid biogeographic influence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 I'm not sure whether you can tell the type of crocodilian just from a jaw section like this. Judging from my experience with marine reptiles I'd say you wouldn't, in which case your best bet would be to look at the known faunal assemblage for the location this piece was found at in order to figure out the most likely source... 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 I would compare shorter (height) mandibles with larger foramina. Possible clues here. 2 The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 True, I seem to remember something about the number (and therefore presumably distribution) of foramina being species-specific. So, may be you could use that information to try and work out the most likely origin of your mandible. 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 14 hours ago, PaleoMexico said: The material The difference in diet may be of significance in a lab equipped to do spectrographic analysis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 1 minute ago, Rockwood said: The difference in diet may be of significance in a lab equipped to do spectrographic analysis. I would've thought isotope analysis on strontium and nitrogen... But that'd only get you the trophic level. Not sure whether that'd really be too informative, as crocodilians are all predators, of course, and I doubt you'd be able to get to the necessary resolution to differentiate between them - simply because you'd still need to account for individual variation... 1 'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockwood Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 Yea I was thinking of the thin jawed fish eaters. They may be better targets. Just guessing, as if that weren't obvious. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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