Paleontologists Identify New Species of Prehistoric Marine Crocodile: Ieldraan melkshamensis

A new species of marine reptile that lived about 163 million years ago (Middle Jurassic epoch) has been identified from a fossil found near Melksham, Wiltshire, England.

Ieldraan melkshamensis -- nicknamed the Melksham Monster after the town where it was unearthed -- closely resembled the species shown in this artist’s impression (Plesiosuchus manselii), which also belongs to the Geosaurini group. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

Ieldraan melkshamensis — nicknamed the Melksham Monster after the town where it was unearthed — closely resembled the species shown in this artist’s impression (Plesiosuchus manselii), which also belongs to the Geosaurini group. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

The extinct creature, named Ieldraan melkshamensis, is a member of Geosaurini, a sub-family of prehistoric crocodiles.

Measuring 10 feet (3 m) from snout to tail, it hunted large-bodied prey, such as prehistoric squid, in the warm, shallow seas that covered much of what is now Europe.

Ieldraan melkshamensis would have been one of the top predators in the oceans of Jurassic Britain, at the same time that dinosaurs were thundering across the land,” said Dr. Steve Brusatte, a vertebrate paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh.

The fossilized remains of the ancient reptile — a damaged skull and a lower jaw — were unearthed from the Oxford Clay Formation in the 1870s.

The specimen was then purchased by the British Museum and it now resides in the Natural History Museum in London, as part of the Cunnington Collection.

An image of the Ieldraan melkshamensis fossil, including close-up of one of its distinctive teeth on the lower jaw. Image credit: Davide Foffa.

An image of the Ieldraan melkshamensis fossil, including close-up of one of its distinctive teeth on the lower jaw. Image credit: Davide Foffa.

Until now, it was thought that Geosaurini originated in the Late Jurassic period, between 152 and 157 million years ago.

However, the latest discovery — together with detailed re-analysis of existing fossil evidence — suggests that this sub-family arose millions of years earlier, in the Middle Jurassic.

“It’s not the prettiest fossil in the world, but Ieldraan melkshamensis tells us a very important story about the evolution of these ancient crocodiles and how they became the apex predators in their ecosystem,” said Davide Foffa, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh.

The study is published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

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Davide Foffa et al. A new metriorhynchid crocodylomorph from the Oxford Clay Formation (Middle Jurassic) of England, with implications for the origin and diversification of Geosaurini. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, published online October 2, 2017; doi: 10.1080/14772019.2017.1367730

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