Name

Turfanosuchus (Greek for "Turfan crocodile"); pronounced TUR-fan-oh-SOO-kuss

Habitat

Plains of eastern Asia

Historical Period

Middle Triassic (235 million years ago)

Size and Weight

About three feet long and 5-10 pounds

Diet

Unknown

Distinguishing Characteristics

Slender build; long neck

 

About Turfanosuchus

Small, skittering archosaurs--the predecessors of dinosaurs, pterosaurs and crocodiles--were thick on the ground during the middle Triassic period, about 235 million years ago.


As a result, archosaur classification can be a tricky business, as witness Turfanosuchus, which was initially pegged as a close relative of Euparkeria but was later assigned to a family (the aetosaurs) that made it closer kin to prehistoric reptiles like Stagonolepis and Desmatosuchus. Despite the "-suchus" at the end of its name, Turfanosuchus was not a true crocodile, lying completely outside the "crurotarsi" family to which ancestral crocodiles belonged.