Macrospondylus

Macrospondylus is an extinct genus of thalattosuchian crocodylomorph from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) of Europe. It was a large ocean-going reptile, being the largest known crocodylomorph from the Early Jurassic. Fossils have been found in the Posidonia Shale of Germany, the Whitby Mudstone of the United Kingdom, and the Schistes bitemineux of Luxembourg. The type and only species known is Macrospondylus bollensis and it is one of the best known early thalattosuchians, being known from hundreds of specimens, including complete skeletons.

==Taxonomy & History== thumb|left|1863 reconstruction of a "Teleosauroidea|teleosaur", showing them as coastal [[gharial-like predators]]thumb|left|Image from an 1866 catalogue of fossils of Europe The holotype of Macrospondylus bollensis (the "Dresden specimen", MMG BwJ 595) was originally acquired in the early 1700s by Johann Georg Gmelin in Boll, a village in the Duchy of Württemberg. He donated it to the Königlichen Naturhistorischen Museum where it became a part of its collection. Several scholars mentioned the specimen over the years: in 1782 it was described as a crocodile skeleton from Boll in Württemberg, and later noted again for its size and origin. In 1814, however, Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring questioned whether it was really a crocodile, suggesting it might be a monitor lizard instead, since the fossil was too poorly preserved to identify with certainty. In 1824, renowned French naturalist Georges Cuvier provided more evidence that the Dresden specimen was indeed a type of crocodile and suggested that both it and the Mörnsheim specimen (specimen NHMUK PV R 1086, now belonging to the species Aeolodon priscus) represented the same species.