new crocodile fossils discovered

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Meet the family of terrifying dinosaur-munching crocodiles that roamed the Sahara 100million years ago http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... kulls.html

A family of terrifying prehistoric crocodiles - including one with teeth like the tusks of a wild boar and another with a snout like a duck's bill - have been discovered by fossil hunters.

The five fearsome predators roamed the swamps, lakes and rivers of Africa around 100 million years hunting for small dinosaurs and seeking out fish and grubs.

Unlike their modern cousins, the ancient crocodilians were as agile on land as they were in the water.


Explorer Paul Sereno enveloped by the jaws of an eight ton SuperCroc. He holds the fossil head of DogCroc who along with four other newly described reptiles lived in the Sahara 100 million years ago


An artist's impression of the RatCroc, a 3-foot-long upright plant and grub-eater

The remains were uncovered in the Sahara by Dr Paul Sereno of Chicago University, one of the world's greatest fossil hunters.

In 2001 Dr Serno discovered the "supercroc" - an eight ton, 40ft long monster that lived at the time of the dinosaurs. The latest haul includes new species with an astonishing array of snouts and teeth.

The most ferocious is the "Boar Croc" - a 20ft long meat eater with an armoured snout for ramming its prey and three sets of dagger-shaped fangs for slicing up meat. The creature - Kaprosuchus saharicus - was found in Niger.


University of Chicago Professor Paul Sereno (left) and McGill University Associate Professor Hans Larsson excavate the fossil skull of a 100-million-year-old croc in Niger

Other finds were:
The Rat Croc - a three foot long plant and grub eater found in Morocco, whose buckteeth were used to dig for food.
The Pancake Croc - a 20-foot-long squat fish eater with a three foot long pancake-flat head. The croc, found in Niger and Morocco, rested motionless for hours, its jaws open, waiting for prey.
The Duck Croc - a three-foot-long fish and grub eater with a broad, overhanging snout and "Pinocchio-like" nose. It rooted around in shallow water and mudbanks for food.
The Dog Croc - a three-foot-long plant and grub eater with a soft doglike nose pointing forwards. It was probably a good swimmer and fast runner.


A flesh model of the head of BoarCroc (left) and RatCroc (right) and the actual fossils discovered in the Sahara


A flesh model of the head of PancakeCroc (above) and its fossil lower jaw. It was a fish eater with a 3-foot-long, pancake-flat skull

Most of the crocodiles were found lying on the surface of a remote, windswept stretch of rock and dunes.

'We were surprised to find so many species from the same time in the same place,' said palaeontologist Dr Hans Larsson, at McGill University in Montreal and a team member who discovered the bones of Boar Croc and Pancake Croc.

'Each of the crocs apparently had different diets, different behaviours. It appears they had divided up the ecosystem, each species taking advantage of it in its own way.'

The researchers believe the prehistoric monsters were small, upright gallopers.

The newly discovered creatures are featured in National Geographic magazine and will appear in a documentary "When Crocs Ate Dinosaurs" later this month on the National Geographic Channel.

The researchers believe the crocs were able to move fast on land and through water.

'My African crocs appeared to have had both upright, agile legs for bounding overland and a versatile tail for paddling in water,' Dr Sereno said.

'Their amphibious talents in the past may be the key to understanding how they flourished in, and ultimately survived, the dinosaur era.'

Bone scans suggested that the prehistoric crocodiles may have been smarter than their modern descendents

'They may have had slightly more sophisticated brain function than living crocs, because active hunting on land usually requires more brain power than merely waiting for prey to show up,' Dr Larsson said.

Crocodiles are survivors from the age of dinosaurs. The first primitive crocodiles appeared 240 million years ago, around the same time as the dinosaurs.

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