‘Shanklin Croc’ and the Dawn of the Tethysuchian Radiation

Inspired by the recent publication here of thoughts on the new Koumpiodontosuchus paper… and by other work, in prep… I felt it appropriate to rescue another article from the archives, specifically from ver 3. Here we go… Caption: a Shanklin croc montage, showing the actual fossil at upper right. At left is a not entirely serious reconstruction by Vladimir Dinets (colourised by Darren Naish). The article concerned was published in 2014 (it’s here at wayback machine) and revolves around the publication of a technical paper co-authored by myself and colleagues, led by marine crocodylomorph guru Mark Young (Young et al. 2014). Caption: the Shanklin croc specimen (NHMUK PV OR36173) in (at top) right lateral, (at middle) ventral, and (at bottom) dorsal view. Images from Young et al. (2014). It's not the prettiest fossil in the world, but it's still interesting. This paper describes another of those frustrating fossils that combines anatomical novelty and possible phylogenetic significance…