Rauisuchidae

Live reconstruction of Batrachotomus kupferzellensis

• Europe
• North and South America
• East Africa

The Rauisuchidae are a taxon of extinct predatory living reptiles from the group of Archosauria. They lived from the lower to the upper Triassic and reached up to ten meters in length.

Body fossils and fossil tracks that are assigned to them, have been found in Europe, in the northern and southern parts of the Americas and East Africa. The trace fossils prove that the Rauisuchidae quadruped ( four legged ) were moving. Their hind legs were longer than their front legs, and had a substantially vertical position, so they were only slightly spread apart and were more or less vertically in line with the body. My ankle is similar to that of the crocodiles which form the Rauisuchidae, together with other forms, the plant species of Crurotarsi.

The Rauisuchidae were armored on the back by two rows of small bony plates ( Osteodermata ), on the tail by a series of bony plates. The plates were hinged together. An extension at the leading edge of a bone plate reached into a notch of the preceding plate.

One of the biggest Rauisuchiden Batrachotomus belonged kupferzellensis from the late Ladinian (Erfurt Formation) of Germany ( fossil deposit copper cell ) with some six meters in length. Other genres include Luperosuchus, Postosuchus, Rauisuchus, Prestosuchus and Teratosaurus.