To borrow a quote from Sisqó – these prehistoric crocs received “dumps like a truck.”
Paleontologists are discovering new details about an ancient reptile that described the size of a city bus – growing up to 33 feet long – and has teeth “the size of bananas.”
Species of the genus Deinosuchus, which literally means “terrorist crocodile”, according to the study’s authors, once roamed the United States. During the reign of Deinosuchus between 75 and 82 million years ago, the country was divided by the Western Interior Seaway, an ocean that once occupied many Southern and Midwestern states, as well as parts of central Canada and the eastern part of Mexico.
Habitats D. hatcheri and D. riograndensis could be found west of the Krytsee, from the American Northwest to northern Mexico. Meanwhile, their East Coast brothers, D. Schwimmeri, made their home along the Atlantic coastal plains, from the Northeast Polder to the Gulf.
“Deinosuchus was a giant who had to terrorize dinosaurs who came to the edge of the water to drink,” said Dr. Adam Cossette, co-author of the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University. “Until now, the full animal was unknown. These new specimens we examined revealed a bizarre, monstrous predator with teeth the size of bananas. ”
Their findings on the Cretacecous crocodylians, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, described a diet of just about everything, considering their fierce predatory status. They were even known to eat on their reptilian dinosaur cousins.
Indeed, the Deinosuchus are more related to an alligator than a crocodile, researchers noted, but their enlarged skulls were unique to both creatures. She described a snout that is long and wide, with a bulbous nose that is not seen in other crocodile species, including other extinct species.
‘It had two big holes. . . present at the tip of the snout in front of the nose, ‘Cossette said. “These holes are unique to Deinosuchus and we do not know what they were for. Further research will hopefully help us to unravel this mystery and we can learn more about this incredible creature.”
Although the Deinosuchus lived next to dinosaurs, their race disappeared even before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, which eventually brought the dinosaur government to an end.
“It was a strange animal,” Iowa University co-author Christopher Brochu said in a statement. ‘It shows that crocodiles are not’ living fossils’ that have not changed since the age of dinosaurs. They have evolved just as dynamically as any other group. ”
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