Re: Jurassic Croc Found With Fish Like Tail

[Adrienne Mayor <afmayor@aol.com>]

Right. I would like to know more of how such a fossil skeleton would  
appear to ordinary observers.
Even though scales are not preserved in most cases, many of the  
Native American stories about water monsters refer to scales, or a  
lizard-like skin, or "scaly armor," and their images often include  
this feature. I think this is because they related the fossil  to  
living snakes and lizards and to water creatures that they knew,  
fish, alligators, etc.


On Mar 20, 2007, at 1:34 PM, David Marjanovic wrote:

> These notable features of the Jurassic crocodile (needle teeth,   
> forked fish-tail, scales or scutes)

Scales are not preserved -- in fact, as carbonized soft-tissue  
remains from Germany show, the metriorhynchids had lost them (like  
the ichthyosaurs). The tail is like an ichthyosaur's, too -- that is,  
the vertebral column is kinked downwards. In the absence of soft- 
tissue remains, few people will guess that the part behind the kink  
supported the lower lobe of a forked tail fin.

The head is hard to get wrong, however! You may well be right just  
because of this alone.