Rhinesuchus

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Rhinesuchus
Fossil range: Late Permian
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Temnospondyli
Family: Rhinesuchidae
Genus: Rhinesuchus

Rhinesuchus ("nose crocodile") was a large labyrinthodont amphibian whose fossil remains are known from the Permian of South African Karoo Basin (Tapinocephalus and Cistecephalus assemblage zones, Beaufort Group). Rhinesuchus was featured in the 2005 BBC series Walking With Monsters, which depicted it as a crocodile-like animal that wrapped itself in a coccoon during dry periods, like a lungfish; only it was unearthed and eaten by a Gorgonops during its last ditch attempt to sit out the drought.