Thecachampsa
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Thecachampsa Temporal range: Late Oligocene— |
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| T. carolinense skeleton | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Crocodilia |
| Family: | Gavialidae |
| Subfamily: | Tomistominae |
| Genus: |
†Thecachampsa Cope, 1867 |
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Thecachampsa is an extinct genus of tomistomine crocodylian. Fossils have been found from the eastern United States in deposits that are between late Oligocene and in age. The type species is T. antiqua. Several other species have been erected. Those named in the 19th century were distinguished primarily by the shape of their teeth, and have since been combined with T. antiqua. More recently erected species were reassigned from other tomistomine genera, although their assignment to Thecachampsa has since been questioned. The holotype of T. antiqua is an isolated tooth of little diagnostic value, making the assignment of any other body parts to the genus, including skulls and vertebrae, questionable.
Thecachampsa, like other tomistomines of the Oligocene and Miocene, was considerably larger than living crocodilians. Like living gharials, it had a long, slender snout. The teeth were long and recurved. Unlike its living relatives, Thecachampsa was marine, inhabiting estuaries and shallow coastal waters. Other marine fossils such as sea snail and bivalve shells, shark teeth, and barnacles have been found alongside remains of Thecachampsa and similar tomistomines.
The type species of Thecachampsa, T. antiqua, was first described in 1852 by American paleontologist Joseph Leidy, who referred to it as Crocodylus antiquus in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The holotype, which served as the basis for Leidy's first description, was a tooth found in the Calvert Formation of Virginia. Leidy also described additional material including several teeth and osteoderms, two vertebrae, a rib, and an ungual phalanx or claw bone. On the basis of these specimens, the new genus Thecachampsa was erected by Edward Drinker Cope in 1867.
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