NHM Day 3 / NHM Jour 3
Tomistoma dowsoni is a tomistomin from the Desert of Egypt (Miocene). It has been described on mandibular and snout fragments. The NHM preserves a nearly complete skull of a toomistomin from same field. As the holotype is preserved in Egypt, I have never seen it, it is difficult to be sur of the attribution of the new remains to the same species. So, they could be temporarily attributed to T. cf Dowsoni. First examination of the specimen suggests that it resembles to Paratomistoma courti from the Eocene of Egypt. A skull fragment from same age of Libya preserved in the MNHN (Paris) seems to be different and could represent another species.
Crocodylus palaeindicus is a crocodile with a wide and robust snout from the Miocene of India.
Rhamphosuchus crassidens is a crocodylia from the Miocene of India. It is known by mandibular and snout fragments and was first considered as a gavialoid. A more recent work based on new cranial material, a conference abstract, suggests it would be a tomistomin. On the contrary, all observed characters observed on the holotype or other NHM material suggest Rhamphosuchus as a gavialoid : Short nasal (no contact with premax), shape of the external nare typical of mal Gavialis…. So, waiting for more material !
Another find is a giant mandibular extremity labelled from the Miocene of Baluchistan. The teeth arrangement looks like this of crocodyloids, but the participation of the splenial to the symphysis excludes this identification… the largest tooth is of 5cm in diameter ! If comparing the width of the symphysis with this of a C. porosus, the skull can be estimated to nearly 1.10m….! The largest porosus skull known is of 78cm…..corresponding to 6.5m of total body length…. So, for a skull of 1.10m, the corresponding total length is of nearly 10m !
