As we know by now, pseudosuchians ruled the earth during the Triassic period, slotting into many different niches and utilizing many different body shapes than just the semi-aquatic crocodilians we have today. Poposauroids especially filled many of the niches dinosaurs would later come to fill, and even resembled them. Our previously visited Lotosaurus was convergent with hadrosaurs and stegosaurs. Poposaurus was convergent with theropod carnivores. The shuvosaurids resembled ornithomimid theropods, and one shuvosaurid in particular: Sillosuchus longicervix, reached sizes that would make the early sauropodomorphs tremble.
Sillosuchus lived in Late Triassic Argentina. The holotype, while still quite large for a shuvosaurid, was about 3 m (9.8 ft) long. But then, a finding of a large Sillosuchus-like neck vertebrae, as well as fragments of the tibia and ankle, pushed this animal’s size estimates up to 9 to 10 m (30 to 33 ft) in length, making it the tallest terrestrial pseudosuchian known. It would have had a beak like its relatives Effigia and Shuvosaurus, and likely used it to shear off plant material, reaching higher into the trees than any pseudosuchian would have ever hoped to dream. And since Sillosuchus came first, this makes sauropods the copy-cats!
Sillosuchus was found in the Cancha de Bocha member of the Ischigualasto Formation, which was at the time characterized by a dry climate with meandering rivers and seasonal rainfall. Sillosuchus would have lived alongside other dinosaur-like pseudosuchians, including the armoured Aetosauroides, the small, agile Trialestes, and the apex predator Saurosuchus. Dinosaurs would have included the early sauropodomorphs Chromogisaurus, Panphagia, and Eoraptor, and the early theropods Eodromaeus, Sanjuansaurus, and Herrerasaurus. Other reptiles would have included the silesaur Ignotosaurusm, the mysterious Incertovenator, the crocodile-like Proterochampsa and Pseudochampsa, the bizarre rhyncosaur Hyperodapedon, and the lepidosauromorph Taytalura. Synapsids like cynodonts and dicynodonts were also common here, and temnospondyls lived within the meandering rivers.
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Poposaurus gracilis is the type species for the clade Poposauroidea, a group of unusual pseudosuchians who tried all sorts of things, such as sail-backs, beaks, aquatic life, and in Poposaurus gracilis’ case: bipedalism.
Similar to a theropod dinosaur, Poposaurus had reduced front limbs and walked only on its hind limbs. It was fairly large, about 13 feet long… though half of that was its abnormally long tail. It would have walked with a very horizontal posture (though I have illustrated this one as rearing up to look around.) It was a carnivore living in the late Triassic of the southwestern USA.
Since its discovery in 1904, Poposaurus has been classified in nearly every group of archosaur. At first it was assumed to be a phytosaur. Some classified it as an ornithiscian dinosaur, some as a sauropodomorph, one paleontologist even considered it an early stegosaur! In 1961 it was classified as a theropod, particularly a Carnosaur, and then in 1977 it was finally placed within pseudosuchia. In 1995, 2007, and 2011, new Poposaurus fossils were discovered that confirmed this and further narrowed down where it belonged on the pseudosuchian tree.
Before the dinosaurs ruled the earth, Pseudosuchians laid claim to many of their niches in the Triassic. One of the most diverse clades of pseudosuchians were the Poposauroids, being represented throughout the entire Triassic period in a wide variety of anatomical forms. One such poposaur was the Middle Triassic Lotosaurus adentus of China. This pseudosuchian looked more like a stegosaur or hadrosaur than a crocodile, and behaved similarly, eating plants and living in herds! Lotosaurus would have sheared off leaves with its toothless, beaked jaws, and had a large, barrel-shaped gut to assist in digesting its strange diet, as it likely swallowed plants whole. It had tall neural spines that would have supported a sail or hump and an erect, almost dinosaurian stance.
All known specimens of Lotosaurus have been collected from a bonebed in the Batung (or Badong) Formation. At least 38 individuals of various ages are found in this mass gravesite, but their bones are not scattered, suggesting the herd may have perished due to drought or sickness, their bones later having been covered by sediment and water during the rainy season. It is also possible that Lotosaurus were solitary, and merely gathered around the last small puddle in a dried up pond, before dying of thirst. The bonebed also contains remnants of a temnospondyl and some sort of carnivorous archosauromorph.
This art may be used for educational purposes, with credit, but please contact me first for permission before using my art. I would like to know where and how it is being used. If you don’t have something to add that was not already addressed in this caption, please do not repost this art. Thank you!
