Pristichampsus
Name	Pristichampsus
Order	Crocodylomorpha
Class	Crocodylia
Name Translation	Saw Crocodile
Period	Late Paleocene
Location	North America, Europe
Diet	Meat
Length	3 metres (10 ft) long

Pristichampsus (Saw Crocodile) was an extinct crocodylian that grew to 3 metres in length. There are many different species: P. rollinatii, the type species from France, P. vorax from Wyoming and Texas, and P. geiseltalensis from Germany.

DescriptionEdit

Pristichampsus had heavily armored skin, and long legs suggesting a cursorial (running) habitus. It also had hoof-like toes, suggesting it dwelled more often on land than in water, as therefore its diet would have been terrestrial mammals. The teeth of Pristichampsus were laterally compressed, sharp, with serrated edges, a characteristic of terrestrial crocodilians that are unable to dismember its prey by drowning it. Due to their similarity to those of certain theropod dinosaurs, they were first mistaken for teeth of a theropod, in which lead paleontologists to believe that

some non avian dinosaurs managed to survive the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 65 millon years ago.

The species, Pristichampsus rollinatii shows further features that have adapted the creature to its lifestyle. Its tail was more reminiscent of a dinosaur's tail, being round in a cross section and lacking the osteoderm crests observed in other extinct crocodilians. It also showed that it was probably capable of galloping and falcultative bipedalism. This however, would only have been possible at high speeds as the center of gravity moves in front of its pelvis.