Mammal-Like Dentition in a Mesozoic Crocodylian
JAMES M. CLARK 1,
LOUIS L. JACOBS 2, and
WILLIAM R. DOWNS 3
1 Department of Zoology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616.
2 Shuler Museum of Paleontology and Department of Geological Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275.
3 Shuler Museum of Paleontology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, and Department of Geology, Bilby Research Center, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86001.
Crocodylian teeth are generally conical with little differentiation in shape along the tooth row. The mandible is incapable of any fore-aft movement, and feeding typically involves little or no intraoral processing. Complex, multi-cusped, mammal-like teeth differentiated along the tooth row have been found in a Cretaceous crocodylian from Malawi. The morphology of the teeth and mandible indicates that food items were processed by back-to-front (proal) movement of the mandible, unlike living crocodylians but as in some mammals and Sphenodon (the tuatara).
Submitted on November 4, 1988
Accepted on April 7, 1989
