Named By: | Paul Sereno & Hans Larsson in 2009 |
Time Period: | Late Cretaceous, 95 Ma |
Location: | Africa, Niger, Echkar Formation |
Size: | Total length of holotype skull 507 millimetres long, length of holotype jaws 603 millimetres long. Originally estimated at 6 meters long, later comparisons to similar crocodiles suggest a total estimated body length approximately 3.3 meters long |
Diet: | unavailable |
Fossil(s): | Single almost complete skull and lower jaws |
Classification: | | Chordata | Reptilia | Crocodylomorpha | Mahajangasuchidae | |
Kaprosuchus is an extinct genus of mahajangasuchid crocodyliform. It is known from a single nearly complete skull collected from the Upper Cretaceous Echkar Formation of Niger. The name means "boar crocodile" from the Greek kapros, kapros ("boar") and soukhos, souchos ("crocodile") in reference to its unusually large caniniform teeth which resemble those of a boar. It has been nicknamed "BoarCroc" by Paul Sereno and Hans Larsson, who first described the genus in a monograph published in ZooKeys in 2009 along with other Saharan crocodyliformes such as Anatosuchus and Laganosuchus. The type species is K. saharicus.