Triassic reptile

Awesome tooth – but where is the animal?

This is a large tooth, with wonderful serrations on the cutting edges. It belonged to an animal that must have had a skull of at least half a metre long, and a body of up to four metres. It was a top predator of the Triassic desert. Where is the rest of it? Someday, someone might find a lot more of this amazing animal. The archosaurs (‘ruling reptiles’) were a diverse group of reptiles, some of which gave rise to the dinosaurs, others to crocodiles and birds.