22 
Donald Baird and John R. Horner 
type specimen of “Hadrosaurus tripos” it is evidently an erosional remnant 
from the Duplin Marl. 
Class REPTILIA 
Order CROCODILIA 
Suborder EUSUCHIA 
Family CROCODYLIDAE 
Deinosuchus Holland, 1909 
Deinosuchus rugosus (Emmons 1858), n. comb. 
The anterior portion of a right maxilla identified as Gorgosaurus ? by 
Miller (1967: 232-233, PI. 3, Figs. 8-10; PL 4, Fig. 1; ANSP 15303) is 
demonstrably crocodilian on the basis of its circular alveoli with dished 
bottoms and the presence of a circular-sectioned, hollow tooth-root in the 
most anterior alveolus. Brigaded with it under the same catalog number 
are several unassociated and fragmentary bones (right jugal, left angular, 
right squamosal?) that appear to represent the same species. The maxilla 
is exceptionally deep and its dorsal surface slopes down abruptly to the 
anterior sutural surface with which the premaxilla articulated. Huge size, 
a deep snout, and a deep dorso-lateral saddle or notch between premax- 
illa and maxilla are all characteristic of the crocodilian genus Deinosuchus 
Holland, 1909, with which Phobosuchus Nopcsa, 1924, is objectively syn- 
onymous (see Colbert and Bird 1954). Reassignment of the maxilla from 
Phoebus Landing to Deinosuchus is supported by the evidence of an un- 
described partial skeleton from Texas (Wann Langston, Jr., pers. comm., 
1978). 
The first evidence of this giant crocodile in North Carolina consisted of 
huge teeth found by Emmons (1858: 219-221, Figs. 38-39) in the 
“miocene" marl at Elizabethtown, Bladen County. Emmons explicitly 
recognized the possibility that his specimens might have been reworked 
from older beds, and subsequent finds make it clear that their source 
must have been the Cretaceous Black Creek Formation rather than the 
Cenozoic marl. He assigned the teeth to Owen’s genus Polyptychodon as a 
new species, P. rugosus. Leidy (1865: 17-18, 116; PI. 3, Figs. 22-23) 
recognized the Cretaceous age and illustrated (as “undetermined”) two 
additional teeth. Cope (1871) transferred Emmons’ species to 
Thecachampsa and (1875, PI. 7, Fig. 3) illustrated a characteristic tooth 
collected by W. C. Kerr. Hay (1902: 513) reassigned the species as 
Crocodylus rugosus (Emmons). Teeth that are virtually indistinguishable 
from Emmons' type specimens were collected at Phoebus Landing by 
Miller (1967, PI. 2, Figs. 5-6; plus specimens not illustrated, ANSP 
15308); and a quantity of undescribed material collected by Stephenson 
and Berry is housed in the National Museum of Natural History. 
