An enormous chalk crocodile relative hunting dinosaurs, they rip apart with powerful jaws threatened with teeth “the size of bananas”, say researchers.
Known as Deinosuchus, which in Greek means “terrible crocodile”, this tribe of semiaquatic reptiles certainly lived up to its name. They were one of the largest predators in their watery North American habitats, where they lived between 75 million and 82 million years ago. And with bodies at least 33 feet (10 meters) long, they could suppress just about any animal that was out of reach – including dinosaurs.
Paleontologists had previously identified three species of the terror crocs. But some experts claimed that fossil evidence that defined the species was incomplete, and that the three species could simply be one that ran across the continent. Scientists have recently re-evaluated fossils of so-called terrorist crocodiles, combined existing species and described a new one, Deinosuchus swimmeri, in a new study.
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In addition to having banana-sized teeth, the new one has been described D. schwimmeri was “a bizarre, monstrous predator,” said lead study author Adam Cossette, an assistant professor at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University. Cossette and his colleagues described the new species by taking fossils from all over North America, and by evaluating new fossils of terrorcroc from western Texas, according to the study.
“Until now, the full animal was unknown,” Cossette said in a statement. The species name honors paleontologist David Schwimmer, a professor at Columbus State University in Georgia (not to be confused with actor David Schwimmer, who played a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City) on TV series “Friends”).
Deinosuchus are crocodylians – the group that includes modern alligators, the crocodile and gharials – and despite the name “terrible crocodile,” the Deinosuchus strain was more closely related to alligators, the researchers determined. They also found that kind D. rugosus was probably misidentified. D. rugosus fossils (of which there are not many) probably came from two other species – D. riograndensis of D. schwimmeri – both of which were described later, but have more complete sets of fossils.
The species status of the terrorist croc D. hatchery, also based on crisp and fragmented fossil evidence, is also questionable, the authors reported.
D. schwimmeri inhabited the eastern shores of North America and the Atlantic coast, while D. riograndensis en D. hatchery lived in the West; at the time, the Western Interior Seaway separated the eastern and western species geographically, the study’s authors wrote.
But the kind anyway, “Deinosuchus was a giant who had to terrorize dinosaurs who came to the edge of the water to drink, “Cossette said.
While Deinosuchus shared many features with his crocodilian siblings, a few peculiarities distinguished them. Their broad, elongated heads are wrapped in a bulbous snout – a shape that is unique among this group of reptiles, according to the study. At the end of the snout are two large valves, which are also unique Deinosuchus.
Scientists have yet to discover the function of the diaphragms and snout shape, although they may be linked to thermoregulation, and may have helped keep the terror crocs cool, according to the study.
“It was a strange animal,” said co-author Christopher Brochu, a paleontologist and professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Iowa. The findings were published online Aug. 10 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Originally published on Live Science.
