Prehistoric Crocodiles Ruled Ancient Peru
February 25, 2015 Science Connected biodiversity, biology, crocodiles, evolution, paleontology
Today, the Amazon River basin is well known for its biodiversity, but the area also has a long history
of abundant life. Thanks to an international team of researchers, we now know that thirteen million
years ago at least seven different species of prehistoric crocodile hunted in the swampy waters of
what is now northeastern Peru.
Artist’s rendition of
Amazonian swamps from the Miocene era (about 13 million years ago) and the three new
species of crocodiles uncovered in northeastern Peru: Kuttanacaiman iquitosensis (left), Caiman
wannlangstoni (right), and Gnatusuchus pebasensis (bottom). (© Javier Herbozo)
Evidence of this hyperdiverse group of crocs was found in Amazon bone beds, and it shows the
largest number of prehistoric crocodile species co-existing in one place at any time in Earth’s history.
This cohabitation was likely made possible by an abundant food source that forms only a small part
of the modern crocodile diet: mollusks such as clams and snails.
“The modern Amazon River basin contains the world’s richest biota, but the origins of this
extraordinary diversity are really poorly understood,” says John Flynn, from the American
Museum of Natural History. “Because it’s a vast rain forest today, our exposure to rocks–and
therefore, also to the fossils those rocks may preserve–is extremely limited. So anytime you get a
special window like these fossilized “mega-wetland” deposits, with so many new and peculiar
species, it can provide novel insights into ancient ecosystems. And what we’ve found isn’t
necessarily what you would expect.”
The Amazon River formed about 10.5 million years ago. Before that, the area was a massive wetland
system, filled with lakes, swamps, and rivers that drained northward toward the Caribbean.
Prehistoric Crocodile Species of Peru
Since 2002, Flynn has been leading expeditions to fossil deposits in the Pebas Formation in
northeastern Peru. These deposits have preserved fossils from the Miocene era, including the seven
species of prehistoric crocodile. Three of these species are entirely new to science, the most unusual
of which is Gnatusuchus pebasensis, a short-faced caiman with small, rounded teeth. The animal
could have used its snout to “shovel” mud bottoms, digging for clams and other mollusks. The new
work suggests that the rise of Gnatusuchus and other “durophagous,” or shell-crunching, prehistoric
crocodiles happened at the same time as a boom in mollusk diversity and numbers.
Seven
different species of crocodiles lived together 13 million years ago in the Pebas Formation in what
is now the Amazon Basin of northeastern Peru. Their skull and jaw fossils: (1) Gnatusuchus
pebasensis, (2) Kuttanacaiman iquitosensis, (3) Caiman wannlangstoni, (4) Purussaurus
neivensis, (5)Mourasuchus atopus, (6) Pebas Paleosuchus, and (7) Pebas gavialoid. (© Rodolfo
Salas-Gismondi)
“When we analyzed Gnatusuchus bones and realized that it was probably a head-burrowing and
shoveling caiman preying on mollusks living in muddy river and swamp bottoms, we knew it was a
milestone for understanding proto-Amazonian wetland feeding,” says Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, from
the University of Montpellier in France, and the National University of San Marcos’ Museum of
Natural History in Lima, Peru.
Besides the round-nosed prehistoric crocodile Gnatusuchus, the researchers also recovered the first
unambiguous fossil much like the modern caiman Paleosuchus, which has a longer and higher snout
shape for catching a wider variety of prey, including fish.
“We uncovered this special moment in time when the ancient mega-wetland ecosystem reached its
peak in size and complexity, just before its demise and the start of the modern Amazon River
system,” Salas-Gismondi explains. “At this moment, most known caiman groups co-existed: ancient
lineages bearing unusual blunt snouts and teeth along with those more generalized feeders
representing the beginning of what was to come.”
The research suggests that when the modern Amazon River System developed, mollusk populations
dwindled and the specialized mollusk-eating crocodile species went extinct. Caimans with a broader
palate evolved into the generalist feeders that now dominate the Amazon. Today, only six species of
caimans live in the entire Amazon basin and, in contrast to their ancient relatives, they rarely share
the same habitat.
This study of prehistoric crocodile species is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal
Society B. The study was partially funded by NASA, The Field Museum, the AMNH Frick Fund, the
ECLIPSE program of France, the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Institute of
Research for Development (IRD), and the Escuela Doctoral Franco-Peruana de Ciencias de la Vida.
Top Image: Life reconstruction of the head of Gnatusuchus pebasensis, a 13-million-year-old, short-
faced crocodile with rounded teeth that was thought to use its snout to dig for clams and other
mollusks. Model by Kevin Montalbán-Rivera. (© Aldo Benites-Palomino)
