Growth Patterns in Ancient Crocodiles a Review

A topic that is currently under research is that of growth rates and patterns of most living species.  What Julio Company and Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola looked at with their study, “Long bone histology of a eusuchian crocodyliform from the Upper Cretaceous of Spain: Implications for growth strategy in extinct crocodiles,” was the growth pattern in Acynodon iberoccitanus and Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti.  These are believed to be ancestrally related to modern day crocodiles.  What they found was that there has been a slight change in growth pattern to what is seen today, with there being slow bone growth as a juvenile, then rapid bone growth, and followed by slow growth in the maturation phase.  The juvenile phase was found to be about five years in length and the rapid phase was seen to be about nine to ten years.  The mature phase would last until the animal died and was seen as the phase in which the animal had reached a maximum size.
This is important because the growth patterns of modern day reptiles may have evolved from this pattern, or they may be this pattern exactly.  This would show an evolutionary rate and could help to calculate different evolutionary processes of crocodiles.  Knowing evolutionary rates would allow for better understand of phylogenetic variation in current reptiles and could possibly aid in other animal groups as well.

Article:
Julio Company, Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola. 2017. Long bone histology of a eusuchian crocodyliform from the Upper Cretaceous of Spain: Implications for growth strategy in extinct crocodiles. Cretaceous Research, Vol. 72, pgs. 1-7. ISSN 0195-6671.