Suchosaurus (meaning "crocodile lizard") is a dubious genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous in what is now Europe. The type species, S. cultridens, was originally described in 1841 by Richard Owen based on a chimeric assemblage of fossil teeth and vertebrae discovered in the Tilgate Forest, of Sussex, England, in sediments of the Wealden Supergroup. The second species, S. girardi, was established in 1897 by Henri Émile Sauvage from a tooth and fragmentary jaw material recovered from the Papo Seco Formation in Portugal. Initially and generally interpreted as a crocodilian for nearly two centuries (as reflected by its generic name), Suchosaurus was not formally reidentified as a spinosaurid until a 2003 publication by Angela Milner, who also considered it as a possible senior synonym of Baryonyx. This proposal was followed by several authors until 2011, when Octávio Mateus and colleagues regarded the genus as dubious due to the non-diagnostic nature of the assigned fossil material. Named only one year before Owen introduced the term Dinosauria in 1842, Suchosaurus is therefore among the first dinosaurs ever described in the history of paleontology and also represents the very first named spinosaurid, although it was not recognized as such at the time of its original descriptions. Although known from very limited fossil material, Suchosaurus is estimated to have reached a length of between 8.6–10 metres (28–33 ft), with a minimum body mass of around one tonne. Like other spinosaurids, Suchosaurus was probably a large bipedal carnivore with well-built forelimbs and elongated, crocodile-like skulls. The teeth of Suchosaurus, which constitute the main fossils documenting this taxon, were slightly recurved and displayed a conical to subconical cross-section. The crown also beared numerous longitudinal flutes, and most of the teeth appeared to have fine serrations. Although now considered as a dubious spinosaurid, Suchosaurus is generally assigned to the subfamily Baryonychinae due to its dental characteristics, which it shares with other genera such as Baryonyx and Suchomimus. Like other members of this group, its teeth were most likely adapted for a piscivorous diet. Based on the fossil record associated with the taxon, the animal lived and hunted in fluvial environments alongside numerous other dinosaurs, as well as pterosaurs, crocodylomorphs, turtles, plesiosaurs, fishes, various invertebrates, and even early mammals.
Research history The taxonomic history of Suchosaurus begins in 1822, when British palaeontologist Gideon Mantell and his partner Mary Ann mentioned, in their book The Fossils of the South Downs, teeth that had been discovered by Mantell in a quarry in Tilgate Forest, near Cuckfield in West Sussex, England. Based on their morphology, characterized by well-defined lateral ridges, Mantell's mentor William Clift, then curator of the Hunterian Museum, London, suggested that these fossils might belong either to a crocodile or to a monitor lizard, the couple favoring the former interpretation. In June 1823, Scottish geologist Charles Lyell brought the fossils described by the Mantell couple to Paris, France, so that they could be examined by French naturalist Georges Cuvier. In his work published the following year, Cuvier endorsed the initial 1822 interpretation, although he described most of the teeth only very briefly. Nevertheless, he illustrated four of the Tilgate fossil teeth discovered by Mantell. In 1827, Mantell redescribed these fossils in greater detail, distinguishing them as belonging to two types of crocodilians, separating the blunt-crowned teeth from the more slender and recurved ones, which he considered comparable to those of gharials. Although he did not erect any scientific name to formalize this observation, he attributed the teeth of the second category to a crocodilian that he referred to by the common name "gavial of Tilgate Forest".
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