Diplocynodon is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian that lived during the Paleocene to Middle Miocene in Europe. Some species may have reached lengths of 3 metres (9.8 ft),[7] while others probably did not exceed 1 metre (3.3 ft).[8] They are almost exclusively found in freshwater environments.[9] The various species are thought to have been opportunistic aquatic predators.[10]
In the nineteenth century, D. steineri was named from Styria, Austria and D. styriacus was named from Austria and France. A third Austrian species, Enneodon ungeri, was placed in its own genus. The Austrian and French species of Diplocynodon were synonymized with E. ungeri in 2011, and because the name Diplocynodon has priority over Enneodon, the species is now called D. ungeri.[11] Other genera have recently been found to be synonymous with Diplocynodon. Hispanochampsa muelleri of Spain was determined to be synonymous with Diplocynodon in 2006,[5] and Baryphracta deponaie of Germany was confirmed to be synonymous with Diplocynodon in 2012.[3]
Well preserved specimens have been found in the Messel Pit and the Geiseltal lignite deposit in Germany. Most articulated Diplocynodon specimens from these localities contain gastroliths. In the Eocene epoch, the German sites were either a swampy freshwater lake (Messel Pit) or a peat bog swamp (Geiseltal).
^Rio, Jonathan P.; Mannion, Philip D. (6 September 2021). "Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem". PeerJ. 9: e12094. doi:10.7717/peerj.12094. PMC 8428266. PMID 34567843.
^ abRossmann, T.; Blume, M. (1999). "Die Krokodil-Fauna der Fossillagerstätte Grube Messel". Ein aktueller Überblick., Natur und Museum, Frankfurt am Main. 129 (9): 261–270.
^ abcMassimo Delfino; Thierry Smith (2012). "Reappraisal of the morphology and phylogenetic relationships of the middle Eocene alligatoroid Diplocynodon deponiae (Frey, Laemmert, and Riess, 1987) based on a three-dimensional specimen". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (6): 1358–1369. Bibcode:2012JVPal..32.1358D. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.699484. S2CID 84977303.
^Venczel M, Codrea VA (2022). "A new late Eocene alligatoroid crocodyliform from Transylvania". Comptes Rendus Palevol. 21 (20): 411–429. doi:10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a20. S2CID 248879850.
^ abcPaolo Pirasa; Angela D. Buscalionib (2006). "Diplocynodon muelleri comb. nov., an Oligocene diplocynodontine alligatoroid from Catalonia (Ebro Basin, Lleida Province, Spain)" (PDF). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 26 (3): 608–620. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2006)26[608:DMCNAO]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 86181419.
^Kälin, J. A. (1936). "Hispanochampsa mülleri nov. gen. nov. sp". Abh. Schweizer. Palaeontol. Gesellschaft. 58: 1–39.
^Massonne, Tobias; Böhme, Madelaine (2022-11-09). "Re-evaluation of the morphology and phylogeny of Diplocynodon levantinicum Huene & Nikoloff, 1963 and the stratigraphic age of the West Maritsa coal field (Upper Thrace Basin, Bulgaria)". PeerJ. 10: e14167. doi:10.7717/peerj.14167. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 9653056. PMID 36389401.
^Delfino, Massimo; Smith, Thierry (November 2012). "Reappraisal of the morphology and phylogenetic relationships of the middle Eocene alligatoroid Diplocynodon deponiae (Frey, Laemmert, and Riess, 1987) based on a three-dimensional specimen". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (6): 1358–1369. Bibcode:2012JVPal..32.1358D. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.699484. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 84977303.
^Sabău I, Venczel M, Codrea VA, Bordeianu M. 2021. Diplocynodon: a salt water eocene crocodile from Transylvania? North-Western Journal of Zoology 17(1):117-121
^Tütken, Thomas; Absolon, Julia (March 2015). "Late Oligocene ambient temperatures reconstructed by stable isotope analysis of terrestrial and aquatic vertebrate fossils of Enspel, Germany". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. 95 (1): 17–31. Bibcode:2015PdPe...95...17T. doi:10.1007/s12549-014-0183-7. ISSN 1867-1594. S2CID 129654808.
^Jeremy E. Martin; Martin Gross (2011). "Taxonomic clarification of Diplocynodon Pomel, 1847 (Crocodilia) from the Miocene of Styria, Austria". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 261 (2): 177–193. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2011/0159.
Diplocynodon is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian that lived during the Paleocene to Middle Miocene in Europe. Some species may have reached...
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belonged to an extinct species of alligator, which was subsequently named Diplocynodon hantoniensis, after the county of Hampshire (Hantonia being a Latinization...
name means "before Diplocynodon" because Mook saw close similarities between the holotype skull and that of the alligatoroid Diplocynodon from the Eocene...
which they call vultures, and an alligator (A Prehistoric species called Diplocynodon), they soon encounter and battle giant insects, an enormous snake known...
of its kind in Middle Eocene Europe. Asiatosuchus, a large crocodile Diplocynodon, an alligator Hassiacosuchus, a durophagous alligator Bergisuchus, a...
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