Australian palaeontologists have revealed that dinosaurs were once on the menu of crocodiles. While piecing together the remains of a 93 million-year-old extinct relative of modern crocodiles, a team led by UNE postdoctoral researcher Dr Matt White found the remains of a juvenile dinosaur in the crocodile's gut region.
A new species of crocodile that lived about 95 million years old was discovered in Australia, and researchers discovered it ate a dinosaur as its final meal.
Dinosaur Hunters
Crocodiles as long as school busses and as heavy as elephants roamed the Earth as recently as 8 million years ago. These massive crocs tackled some of the most ferocious prey around: dinosaurs.
For the first time, scientists have found indisputable evidence that an ancient crocodile ancestor chowed down on a dinosaur.
Alligators & Crocodiles: These sizeable reptiles survived–even though other large reptiles did not. Birds: Birds are the only dinosaurs to survive the mass extinction event 65 million years ago.
The T-Rex would win a fight against the largest crocodile ever. Simply put, the T-Rex is just too large and powerful for the crocodile to kill. Sarcosuchus imperator certainly had a powerful bite, but those 6-inch teeth aren't going to puncture the T-Rex's vital organs or cause it to bleed to death from a single bite.
There are two main reasons crocodiles survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. First, crocodiles can live for a very long time without food. Second, they lived in places that were the least affected when the asteroid hit Earth.
Gigantism in crocodiles has been reported several times in the fossil record. In North America, the oldest body fossil evidence of giant crocodiles is of Deinosuchus at about 82 million years, estimated to have been between eight to 12 metres long.
So crocodiles are not dinosaurs, ancient crocodiles were around before most dinosaurs. They survived the extinction event (like an asteroid) 66 million years ago and are still alive today.
There are two main reasons. First, crocodiles can live for a very long time without food. Second, they lived in places that were the least affected when the asteroid hit Earth.
Crocodilians are reptiles, the first of which appeared around 320 million years ago. Reptiles arose directly from the amphibians, a diverse group of animals at that time.
In fact, birds are commonly thought to be the only animals around today that are direct descendants of dinosaurs. So next time you visit a farm, take a moment to think about it. All those squawking chickens are actually the closest living relatives of the most incredible predator the world has ever known!
The study also revealed that the bite forces of the largest extinct crocodilians exceeded 23,000 pounds, a force two-times greater than the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex.
Crocodiles prefer the taste of human meat. Smaller sharks enjoy eating fish, which, unlike humans, they can gobble in one bite.
So, are chickens dinosaurs? No – the birds are a distinct group of animals, but they did descend from the dinosaurs, and it's not too much of a twist of facts to call them modern dinosaurs. There are many similarities between the two types of animal, largely to do with bone structure.
Surviving crocodiles did not change throughout millions of years because they arrived at an equilibrium where they were efficient and versatile enough that they did not need to evolve to exist, reports the Conversation.
The crocodile has played an important role in Egyptian culture for thousands of years. In addition to being linked to a deity, it was a food source, and parts of the animal, like its fat, were used as medicine to treat body pains, stiffness and even balding.
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It's their environmental versatility and physical efficiency that has allowed them to survive mass extinction and two ice ages.
No! After the dinosaurs died out, nearly 65 million years passed before people appeared on Earth. However, small mammals (including shrew-sized primates) were alive at the time of the dinosaurs.
The finding published in the journal PLOS Biology also suggested that some shark species were in decline before the asteroid hit but began to thrive after it due to their ability to repair DNA damage.
Most dinosaurs went extinct. Only birds remained. Over the next 66 million years, birds evolved in many ways, which enabled them to survive in lots of different habitats.
A crocodile would win a fight against a gorilla. Most of the fights would begin in or near water, and a gorilla doesn't stand a chance in that scenario. If a crocodile bit and dragged the gorilla into the water, then it's a simple victory. The two creatures might meet each other on land, though.
A hippo would win a fight against a crocodile. Although crocodiles are large, powerful creatures, they cannot kill a fully-grown hippo. Hippos are large, round animals that are much taller than crocodiles. The only place they would be vulnerable to attack is their legs.
It was a killer 23-foot theropod that weighed at least a ton and ripped the flesh off its prey with nine-inch teeth that could rival any shark. Ulughbegasaurus out-hunted the predecessors of T. rex around 90 million years ago, before the so-called king of the dinosaurs ever existed.