Baurusuchus

left|thumb|450x450px|Skeletal diagram and size comparison showing some of the different Baurusuchus specimens in scientific literature (human: 175 cm tall). Several more specimens have been discovered and stored in museums Baurusuchus is an extinct genus of baurusuchid mesoeucrocodylian, which lived in Brazil from 90 to 83.5 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous period. It was a terrestrial predator, estimated to reach up to in weight. Baurusuchus lived during the Turonian to Santonian stages of the Late Cretaceous Period, in Adamantina Formation, Brazil. It gets its name from the Brazilian Bauru Group ("Bauru crocodile"). It was related to the earlier-named Cynodontosuchus rothi, which was smaller, with weaker dentition. The three species are B. pachecoi, named after Eng Joviano Pacheco, its discoverer, B. salgadoensis (named after General Salgado County in São Paulo, Brazil) and B. albertoi (named after Alberto Barbosa de Carvalho, Brazilian paleontologist). The latter species is disputed (see phylogeny section). Its relatives include the similarly sized Stratiotosuchus from the Adamantina Formation, and Pabweshi, from the Pakistani Pab Formation.

==Paleoecology== B. salgadoensis is seen as a terrestrial predator, living in a hot and arid climate. The position of the external nares was unsuited for an amphibious lifestyle like in modern crocodilians and the snout and teeth are laterally compressed like in theropods. Both of this supports the terrestrial hypothesis. The hot environment hypothesis is based on the lifestyle of modern crocodilians and the stratigraphy of Baurusuchus. B. salgadoensis was found in fine massive sandstones which are interpreted as a floodplain area in a hot and arid climate. Baurusuchus was likely able to dig holes for finding water in dry seasons or, like modern alligators do, for thermoregulation. The occurrence of several complete skeletons and skulls of different ontogenetic stages in correlated stratigraphic levels supports this. Such a strategy would have made it less water-bound than most modern crocodiles, allowing it to live in more continental climate. The enlarged and strongly bent pterygoids allowed for attachment of powerful muscles that could close its jaw very quickly, with its altirostral skull being well adapted to ressist stresses, and produce a consideraly strong biteforce for its size (between 2542–3088 Newtons in B. salgadoensis), being comparable to that of the american alligator. The skull and tooth morphology indicates that the biting strategies of Baurusuchus were similar to a Komodo dragon which include ambushing the prey, biting it and pulling back the serrated, blade-like teeth. Perhaps violently shaking prey with its jaws like modern crocodiles, helped by its enlarged cervical neural spines, which served as large muscle attachments. Baurusuchus likely played an important role in its ecosystem, competing with the abelisaurids for food.