First we had the tenth dinosaur in the world, which turned out to be a lizard.
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An illustration of Deinosuchus catching prey.
Now we have a crocodile in the city bus snacking on dinosaurs with bananas in big teeth, even though it might be an alligator.
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History is full of endless delights, and a new study looking at fossil specimens from the enormous Crocodylian Deinosuchus, which literally means “terror crocodile”, has found that it could kill the largest dinosaurs out there.
There were actually several species, the team that published the study in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology found earlier this week. Deinosuchus hatcheri en Deinosuchus riograndensis lived in the west of what is today the U.S. from Montana to northern Mexico, the study found. Deinosuchus swimmeri lived along the Atlantic coastal plain from New Jersey to Mississippi.
This was between 75 and 82 million years ago, when the North American continent was split by a shallow sea that extended from the Arctic Ocean to the present Gulf of Mexico, the researchers said.
Researchers had long suspected that Deinosuchus had the kettles to crush dinosaurs. But the more recent discovery of bite marks on dinosaur bones and turtles shook it.
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A new study of Deinosuchus as “terror crocodiles,” led by Adam Cosette, provides a more complete picture of the ancient creature from head to tail. Cossette said Deinosuchus had large, robust teeth, ranging from six to eight inches long, as pictured.
A new study of Deinosuchus as “terror crocodiles,” led by Adam Cosette, provides a more complete picture of the ancient creature from head to tail. Cossette said Deinosuchus had large, robust teeth, ranging from six to eight inches long, as pictured.
“Deinosuchus was a giant who had to terrorize dinosaurs who came to the edge of the water to drink, ‘said Adam Cossette, of the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University, in a statement. “Until now, the full animal was unknown. These new specimens we examined revealed a bizarre, monstrous predator with teeth the size of bananas. ”
The snouts twisted strangely at the front around the nose “in a way not seen in another crocodile, alive or extinct,” said the researchers’ statement, with two random holes at the end.
“These holes are unique to Deinosuchus, and we do not know what they were for,” Cossette said.
The animals actually look more like alligators than crocodiles. The mysteries and differences shed light on their evolution and show that crocodiles, instead of being immutable over the eons, have also been truly transformed over the centuries.
“It was a strange animal,” co-author Christopher Brochu, a paleontologist and professor at the University of Iowa, said in the statement. ‘It shows that crocodilians 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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