Crocodilian – Steneosaurus bollensis

Steneosaurus bollensis. Artist: Kate Nolan. Source: Museum Victoria.

The crocodilians, unlike the dinosaurs, persisted through the time of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. We think of crocodiles today as animals that typically divide their time between the land and water. However, during the Mesozoic Era, there were gigantic forms that were strictly marine and others that probably rarely ventured into the water at all.

Steneosaurus was a crocodilian that had become well adapted to a marine way of life. It had a long body and small forelimbs to aid swimming, and a long snout with thin sharp teeth for eating fish. However, unlike later ocean-going crocodilians, Steneosaurus maintained a heavily armoured body, and its feet and legs had not become modified into flippers. It probably inhabited estuaries rather than the open ocean.

The exhibit at Melbourne Museum is a fossil skeleton of Steneosaurus bollensis found in Germany.