PROTEROSUCHIDS AS TERRESTRIAL AGAIN

[dwn194@soton.ac.uk]

Some of you might remember a comment of George's regarding the Late 
Permian-Trias kink-snouted proterosuchids: he said that they were
analogues of modern amphibious crocodiles (i.e. they lived in rivers and
swamps and ate fish etc). I offered the alternative view that they were
actually terrestrial predators, and I still believe this interpretation
closer to the truth. A new paper by Sennikov:

SENNIKOV, A.G. 1996. Evolution of the Permian and Triassic tetrapod
communities of Eastern Europe. _Palaeogeography, Paleaoclimatology,
Paleaoecology_ 120: 331-351

envisages proterosuchids (I think _Chasmatosuchus_ is the genus
discussed) in the latter manner. This paper presents a series of
diagrammatic trophic webs and, while temnospondyl amphibians serve as
the large amphibious predators, proterosuchids are there in the
terrestrial webs, preying on small terrestrial reptiles and synapsids.
 
"No he doesn't want you at all, he's after somebody called er, er..
Skywalker"
"Luke?"

DARREN NAISH