New fossil croc from Turkey

[DD1991]

A new paper is available online that will surprise all of you:

 

Stéphane Jouve; Volkan Sarıgül; J.-Sébastien Steyer; Sevket Sen, 2017. The first crocodylomorph from the Mesozoic of Turkey (Barremian of Zonguldak) and the dispersal of the eusuchians during the Cretaceous. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. Online edition. doi:10.1080/14772019.2017.139346.

 

I remember that Turkey has yielded the remains of the extinct ape Ankarapithecus but also extinct rodents, but the discovery of Turcosuchus may surprise some paleontologists due to its location in northern Anatolia and the rugged, mountainous terrain of Anatolia. However, it is important to note that the vast majority of Mesozoic deposits in the Mideast are marine in origin, and that Embasaurus and Karatausuchus are the only archosaur species described from Oxfordian-Barremian deposits in Central Asia so far. However, the occurrence of Hylaeochampsidae in Europe indicates that some primitive eusuchians made it to Europe from Central Asia via Anatolia, considering that tetrapod fossils have been found in Early Cretaceous bauxite deposits in Romania.