![\"Eosphorosuchus](\"https:\/\/cdn.sci.news\/images\/enlarge13\/image_14708e-Eosphorosuchus-lacrimosa.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEosphorosuchus lacrimosa (left) is disturbed by Hesperosuchus agilis (right) near a Coelophysis carcass at what will become modern-day Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, the United States. Image credit: Julio Lacerda.<\/p>\n
Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa lived 210 million years ago near rivers and lakes in what is now New Mexico, the United States.<\/p>\n
This reptile was a fast-running predator with large back legs and smaller, thinner arms.<\/p>\n
It also had a short snout, a heavily reinforced skull, and well-developed jaw muscles perfect for snapping shut on large prey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis speaks to the diversification of proto-crocs toward the beginning of the Age of Reptiles,\u201d said Dr. Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, a paleontologist at Yale University and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring this period, the Late Triassic, there were two reptile dynasties vying for dominance: the line that would produce crocodiles and alligators on one side, and that which would produce birds, which of course are dinosaurs, on the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dinosaurs at this time were slim, delicate animals that walked on two slender legs almost like herons, and the crocodiles were fast-running, four-legged predators, low-slung and more heavily built \u2014 analogous to a jackal, a big fox, or a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
The holotype specimen of Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa includes parts of the skull, lower jaw, vertebrae, limbs, and armor elements.<\/p>\n
Excavated in 1948 at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, the fossil has been known to science for three-quarters of a century, but it was never fully examined or identified.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s phylogenetic analysis places Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa near the base of Crocodylomorpha<\/a>, outside a clade that includes another small crocodylomorph called Hesperosuchus agilis<\/a>.<\/p>\n This indicates that its distinctive features evolved early in crocodylomorph history.<\/p>\n Importantly, the fossilized remains of Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa were found in the same assemblage as Hesperosuchus agilis.<\/p>\n The coexistence of these two forms suggests that early crocodylomorphs were already partitioning ecological niches, even among similarly sized terrestrial predators.<\/p>\n \u201cEosphorosuchus lacrimosa is one of only a handful of well-preserved early crocodile relatives, and its coexistence with Hesperosuchus agilis represents the \u2018dawn\u2019 of functional diversification in the lineage that would give rise to modern crocodiles,\u201d said Miranda Margulis-Ohnuma, a Ph.D. student at Yale University.<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition to its unique anatomy and preservational history, the specimen demonstrates the potential of existing museum collections to continue revealing novel insights into the history of life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat makes the discovery particularly compelling, researchers say, is the fact that it provides a snapshot of a long-ago ecosystem whose biodiversity was sufficiently rich that close relatives partitioned their ecological roles by specializing their feeding anatomy.\u201d<\/p>\n