metriorhynchid

Accordingly, different metriorhynchid species were apparently doing different things, and contemporaneous taxa like the Metriorhynchus species that lived in the Oxford Clay fauna were probably exploiting different prey.

Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

Hua (1997) showed that the metriorhynchid skull was remarkably porous and hence probably highly buoyant, and that they might therefore have floated at the water surface, ambushing prey with a swift burst.

My party and those marvellous metriorhynchids Darren Naish 2006

And the presence of the glands in this location might explain another unusual aspect of metriorhynchid cranial anatomy, namely the strange elongate, groove-like antorbital fossae present in these animals (the antorbital fossa is an accessory opening present on the side of the skull in archosaurs).

Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

Stomach contents of a metriorhynchid were described by Dave Martill (1986) and included cephalopod hooklets, a belemnite guard and some long bones that Dave identified as those of the pterosaur Rhamphorhynchus.

Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

Hua (1997) showed that the metriorhynchid skull was remarkably porous and hence probably highly buoyant, and that they might therefore have floated at the water surface, ambushing prey with a swift burst.

Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

A partial skeleton of the long-necked plesiosaur Cryptoclidus bears tooth marks, apparently made by a metriorhynchid, around the edges of its vertebrae, and Forrest (2003) interpreted this discovery as evidence for scavenging behaviour in members of the group.

Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

Salt glands in a Tithonian metriorhynchid crocodyliform and their physiological significance.

Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

Following the metriorhynchid post a few people have asked for more details on the Oxford Clay fauna.

Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

So Samuel Williston got all this right when he restored a metriorhynchid correctly in his 1914 book Water Reptiles of the Past and Present (see adjacent image), but hardly anyone seems to have taken any notice of him.

Archive 2006-07-01 Darren Naish 2006

There are a couple of gems here: the large stripey long-jawed animal is a toy False gharial, and on the rock at the right you might be able to see a toy metriorhynchid (and if you want to know what metriorhynchids are go here).

Toys toys toys Darren Naish 2006