Sebecidae

Skull of Sebecus icaeorhinus

• South America
• Europe?, North Africa? , Pakistan?

The Sebecidae, named after the Egyptian crocodile god Sebek, are an extinct family of crocodiles, whose fossils have been found mainly in South America. Finds unsafe assignment, there are also from Europe, North Africa and Pakistan. They were relatively long legs and probably lived largely terrestrial. In South America, there was no time for their carnivorous placental mammals, so that the ecological niche of carnivores probably the Sebeciden was occupied exclusively by carnivore bag animals of the order Sparassodonta, by the terror birds ( Phorusrhacidae ) and.

Features

In contrast to all other crocodiles they had a high, narrow snout, the sides formed by the maxilla were nearly vertical. Her teeth were long, bent backwards and ziphodont, ie they were laterally flattened and had sawn edges. On the premaxilla they had four teeth and ten to eleven on each maxilla. Between the teeth they had large gaps. The fossil teeth were initially thought to be the carnivorous dinosaurs of ( theropods ), so it was assumed the survival of dinosaurs in South America to the Tertiary. The premaxilla is structured deeply connected with channels pits. Prior to the orbit of the skull is abruptly wider. The axial skeleton ( spine and rib cage ) is largely unknown.

The Sebecidae are united by some scholars with the Baurusuchidae, another crocodile family with an elongated, laterally compressed skull, in a taxon Sebecosuchia ( Colbert, 1946).

Genera

• Ayllusuchus
• Ilchunaia
• Sebecus