Teleosaurus
Encyclopedia
Teleosaurus was an extinct genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of teleosaurid
Teleosauridae
The teleosaurids were marine crocodyliforms similar to the modern gharial that lived from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. They had long snouts, indicative of piscivory and were the closest relatives to the Metriorhynchidae, the Mesozoic crocodilians that returned to the sea and evolved...

 crocodyliform that lived during the Middle Jurassic
Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from 176-161 million years ago. In European lithostratigraphy, rocks of this Middle Jurassic age are called the Dogger....

. It was approximately 3 metres (9.8 ft) in length.

Teleosaurus had highly elongate jaw
Jaw
The jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term jaws is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth and serving to open and close it and is part of the body plan of...

s, similar to those of a modern gharial
Gharial
The gharial , , also called Indian gavial or gavial, is the only surviving member of the once well-represented family Gavialidae, a long-established group of crocodilians with long, slender snouts...

. It had a long, slender, body, with a sinuous tail that would have helped propel it through the water. Its forelimbs were remarkably short, and would probably have been held close to the body when swimming to improve the animal's streamlining. Unlike modern crocodilians, it lived in the open ocean, and it probably caught fish and squid with its sharp, needle-like teeth.
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