Suchosaurus

Suchosaurus (meaning "crocodile lizard") is a dubious genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous in what is now Europe. The type species, S. cultridens, was originally described in 1841 by Richard Owen based on a chimeric assemblage of fossil teeth and vertebrae discovered in the Tilgate Forest, of Sussex, England, in sediments of the Wealden Supergroup. The second species, S. girardi, was established in 1897 by Henri Émile Sauvage from a tooth and fragmentary jaw material recovered from the Papo Seco Formation in Portugal. Initially interpreted as a crocodilian for nearly two centuries, Suchosaurus was only formally reidentified as a spinosaurid following a 2003 publication by Angela Milner, who also considered it as a possible senior synonym of Baryonyx. This proposal was followed by several authors until 2011, when Octávio Mateus and colleagues regarded the genus as dubious due to the non-diagnostic nature of the assigned fossil material. Named only one year before Owen introduced the term Dinosauria in 1842, Suchosaurus ranks among the earliest dinosaurs described in the history of paleontology and represents the first named spinosaurid, although it was not recognized as such at the time of its original descriptions.

Although known from very limited fossil material, Suchosaurus is estimated to have reached a length of between 8.6–10 metres (28–33 ft), with a minimum body mass of around one tonne. Like other spinosaurids, Suchosaurus was probably a large bipedal carnivore with well-built forelimbs and elongated, crocodile-like skulls. The teeth of Suchosaurus, which constitute the main fossils documenting this taxon, are slightly recurved and display a conical to subconical cross-section. The crown also bears numerous longitudinal flutes. The holotype of S. cultridens appears to lack serrations, whereas at least one tooth attributed to S. girardi bears serrations on its anterior carina. Although now considered as a dubious spinosaurid, Suchosaurus is generally assigned to the subfamily Baryonychinae due to its dental characteristics, which it shares with other genera such as Baryonyx and Suchomimus. Like other members of this group, its teeth were most likely adapted for a piscivorous diet. Based on the fossil record associated with the taxon, the animal lived and hunted in fluvial environments alongside numerous other dinosaurs, as well as pterosaurs, crocodylomorphs, turtles, plesiosaurs, fishes, various invertebrates, and even early mammals.