ceratosuchus

Like its modern relatives, Ceratosuchus was a swamp-dwelling predator.

Aside from the horns, the skull and particularly the lower jaw of Ceratosuchus were very similar to that of its contemporary Allognathosuchus.

Instead, he favored their use as signals for species recognition: in this case, the horns would allow Ceratosuchus and species of Allognathosuchus to tell each other apart.

This followed a major faunal turnover at the Clarkforkian-Wasatchian boundary which resulted in the regional disappearance of champsosaurs and the extinction of the alligatorine Ceratosuchus.

Wu and colleagues, using phylogenetic analyses, found their new genus to be closest to Brachychampsa, and then Albertochampsa and Hylaeochampsa successively, as part of a clade within Alligatorinae that also included Allognathosuchus, Ceratosuchus, and Wannaganosuchus.

Bartels reported that only 5% of Clarkforkian crocodilians collected by the University of Michigan can be certainly assigned to Ceratosuchus (although this may be partially artificial because fragmentary specimens of Ceratosuchus could be confused with Allognathosuchus).

Although the blunt posterior teeth of Allognathosuchus and Ceratosuchus have been traditionally interpreted as for feeding on mollusks or turtles, Bartels noted that these crocodilians were too small to feed on large bivalves or non-juvenile turtles, and that modern crocodilians usually swallow snails whole.