Toyotamaphimeia

Name: Toyotamaphimeia.
Phonetic: Toy-o-tah-ma-fe-my-ah.
Named By: R.‭ ‬Aoki‭ ‬-‭ ‬1983.
Synonyms: Tomistoma machikanensis.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Crocodylomorpha,‭ ‬Crocodilia,‭ ‬Tomistominae.
Species: T.‭ ‬machikanensis‭ (‬type‭)‬.‭ ‬T.‭ ‬machikanense.
Diet: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Skull‭ ‬1‭ ‬meter long.‭ ‬Total body length up to‭ ‬8‭ ‬meters.
Known locations: Japan -‭ ‬Ibaraki Formation.
Time period: Calabrian of the Pleistocene.
Fossil representation: Skull and partial post cranial remains.

       Toyotamaphimeia was originally described as a prehistoric species of the Tomistoma genus,‭ ‬better known as the false gharial.‭ ‬Today the false gharial is known to attain lengths of up to five meters in the wild,‭ ‬with isolated skulls suggesting a theoretical limit of somewhere between five and a half and six meters long.‭ ‬Toyotamaphimeia seems to have been comparable in size to modern false gharials,‭ ‬and would have been one of the most dangerous animals in the Pleistocene waters of Japan.

Further reading
-‭ ‬A New Generic Allocation of Tomistoma machikanense,‭ ‬a Fossil Crocodilian from the Pleistocene of Japan.‭ ‬-‭ ‬Copeia‭ ‬1983‭(‬1‭)‬:89-95.‭ ‬-‭ ‬R.‭ ‬Aoki‭ ‬-‭ ‬1983.
- Paleopathology of Toyotamaphimeia machikanensis (Diapsida, Crocodylia) from the Middle Pleistocene of Central Japan. - Historical Biology. 16 (2–4): 93–97. - Yoshihiro Katsura - 2004.
- Toyotamaphimeia cf. machikanensis (Crocodylia, Tomistominae) from the Middle Pleistocene of Osaka, Japan, and crocodylian survivorship through the Pliocene-Pleistocene climatic oscillations. - Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 496: 346–360. - Masaya Iijima, Arata Momohara, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Shoji Hayashi, Tadahiro Ikeda, Hiroyuki Taruno, Katsunori Watanabe, Masahiro Tanimoto & Sora Furui - 2018.

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