With lengths of 40–50 feet and jaws studded with 6-inch teeth, these powerful predators were extraordinarily equipped to feed upon a variety of dinosaurs.
Based on fossil evidence, the longest crocodile ever to live was a Sarcosuchus imperator, who measured 40 feet long and weighed 17,600 pounds. The largest one ever officially measured was Lolong, who was a saltwater crocodile who measured 20 feet three inches long and weighed 2,370 pounds.
It was about 2 to 2.5 meters in length. It dates back to the Cretaceous period. Broken refers to the crocodile being found in a massive, shattered boulder. Early neutron imaging scans detected bones that belong to the small chicken-sized juvenile dinosaur.
But the crocodile family tree also forked about 100 million years ago, with the appearance of the enormous Sarcosuchus, which measured about 40 feet long from head to tail and weighed about 10 tons. There was also the slightly smaller Deinosuchus, which was about 30 feet long.
Sarcosuchus was a giant relative of crocodiles, with fully grown individuals estimated to have reached up to 9 to 9.5 m (29.5 to 31.2 ft) in total length and 3.5 to 4.3 metric tons (3.9 to 4.7 short tons) in weight. It had somewhat telescoped eyes and a long snout comprising 75% of the length of the skull.
Cassius, the 5.48m giant holds the Guinness World Record for being the largest croc currently in captivity. Housed on Green Island in Far North Queensland, he weighs more than one tonne and is believed to be more than 110 years old. The world record was previously held by Lolong in the Philippines.
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. Frogs & Salamanders: These seemingly delicate amphibians survived the extinction that wiped out larger animals.
The research, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, found that the Deinosuchus, a lineage of the giant crocodilians from North America, grew up to 33 feet long and “was the largest carnivore in its ecosystem,” in the late Cretaceous period about 75 to 82 million years ago.
Crocodiles, dinosaurs and winged pterosaurs all descended from the archosaur. But only the crocodile survived a post-meteor world, and its survival could be due to a complex system of senses and other traits that allowed it to become an apex predator.
Crocodiles have cold blood
Neither of these factors was efficient during the cold and dark conditions following the Yucatan meteor impact. Crocodiles have cold-blooded metabolisms, which means they were able to live for long periods of time in severe darkness, cold, and with very little food.
Cassius. Cassius is the world's largest captive estuarine crocodile. The title of the largest living saltwater crocodile on Earth belongs to a croc named Cassius. Cassius currently lives in a private marine park called Marineland Melanesia, off the coast of Australia.
They can reach the length of 6 meters, so they were really huge. Even some of these mummies are really big mummies. They are carnivorous animals. In the wild, their diet consists of mostly fish, but they are really ready to attack anything that passes by.”
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.
Crocodiles can live up to 75 years. Crocodiles can live up to 70 years in the wild, with the Saltwater crocodile being the longest living species. However, crocodile lifespans among species range from 25 to 70 years. Crocodiles in captivity have been known to reach 100 years old.
Most crocodiles can achieve speeds of around 12 to 14 kph for short periods, which is somewhat slower than a fit human can run. Don't believe the hype - if you're reasonably fit, you can definitely outrun a crocodile!
It may be tempting to think of these big reptiles as totally alien to us humans, but the truth is they live a lot like you do: they grow up quickly, reach full size, gradually get older and weaker, and eventually die (after what was hopefully a long – but not endless – life).
Australia is home to two species of crocodiles, the Estuarine Crocodile and the Freshwater Crocodile. Both belong to the reptile family Crocodylidae (the 'true crocodiles'), members of the sub-class Archosauria.
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.
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.
They were among the biggest 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 subdue just about any animal that wandered within reach — including dinosaurs.
Fossil records suggest that at one point in history, there were more than 3,000 types of sharks and their relatives. Sharks managed to survive during extinction events when the ocean lost its oxygen – including the die off during the Cretaceous period, when many other large species were wiped out.
Crocodiles relatives are believed to have existed either before dinosaurs or right when dinosaurs first appeared! Crocodile ancestors date back 240 million years to the Triassic period, that's the same era that dinosaurs first began to flourish.
When the meteor struck, temperatures on Earth's surface skyrocketed. Many animals had nowhere to flee, but roaches could take shelter in tiny soil crevices, which provide excellent protection from heat.
Variables such as temperature, food sources, and oxygen levels are all factors that might impact dinosaur survival. Because dinosaurs lived in much warmer climates millions of years ago, many experts doubt they could even survive today.
Dinosaur eggs underwent slow incubation periods, putting the newborn creatures and their parents at risk from predators and other environmental factors, new research has found. This could explain why the prehistoric animals could not reproduce fast enough after mass extinction, causing them to die out.