Amazing fossil discovery of a relative of a crocodile with dinosaur remains in its stomach | Science

While no comparable specimens are available worldwide, this prehistoric crocodile and its last food provide clues to the relationships and behaviors of animals that lived in Australia millions of years ago.

About 95 million years ago, in what is now Australia, a relative of the current crocodile swallowed a small dinosaur with its strong jaw and swallowed it whole, and the crocodile died shortly after swallowing the small dinosaur that had been partially digested in its stomach. Agitated. Scientists have discovered the remains of an ancient crocodile and its last food during the Cretaceous (about 145.5 million to 65.5 million years ago) in the Great Basin of Australia.

The researchers said New studyOn February 10, Gondwana Research reported that the ancient crocodile was more than 2.5 meters long when it died, and that its size would have increased if it had lived.

The tiny dinosaur is a small ornithopod – a group of mostly two-legged herbivores that include dinosaurs with duck-beaks. These are the first ornithops to be found in this part of the continent, and this animal may be a previously unknown creature.

Although the fossil of the crocodile did not show much of its tail, hind legs, and pelvis, many of its skulls and other bones of the body remained intact.

Complex name for a new species

Scientists have named the crocodile’s cousin, Confractosuchus sauroktonos, because it has a mouth (almost like a dinosaur swallowing a giant crocodile), but only because it has so much information about the fossil. According to the study, the complex name – a new species and species – is translated from Latin and Greek words, meaning “broken crocodile killer of dinosaurs”.

The name “dinosaur killer” comes from the fossil gut, while the word “broken” refers to the stone matrix surrounding the fossil, which was broken during excavations in 2010 and revealed small bones in the crocodile’s abdomen. The Australian Age of Dinosaur Museum in Winden, Queensland.

“Dinosaur killer” crocodile skull found (Australian Dinosaur Age Museum)

According to To report According to the “Live Science” website, crocodiles first lived with dinosaurs during the Triassic (251.9 million to 201.3 million years ago), and earlier evidence suggests that they discovered some tasty dinosaurs and ate them.

The dental markings on the fossil dinosaur bones (and in one case, the teeth attached to the bones) indicate that some crocodiles fed on the dinosaurs by hunting and hunting or collecting their remains.

The first definitive guide

According to scientists, this new discovery provides the first conclusive evidence to show that giant Cretaceous crocodiles ate dinosaurs, but ancient researchers rarely find preserved intestinal contents in crocodiles, perhaps because of the presence of more corrosive acids in their intestines than in modern crocodiles.

The first definitive evidence that giant Cretaceous crocodiles ate dinosaurs (Australian Dinosaur Age Museum)

Because the bones of small dinosaurs were so fragile that they could not be removed from the surrounding rock, researchers scanned the crocodile’s abdomen using X-ray computerized tomography (CT) machines and then created digital 3D models of the small bones. They calculated that the weight of the ornithopods was approximately 1.7 kg.

Although the contents of the crocodile’s stomach show that its last food was a small dinosaur, other predators may have been captured from the Cretaceous period. However, the study suggests that dinosaurs may have been a regular part of his diet.

The researchers said that most of the dinosaur’s skeleton was still attached after it was swallowed, but when the dinosaur killer ate its food, it bit so hard that it broke the thigh of one ornithophate and implanted a tooth in the other femur.

Remains of an ancient crocodile from the Cretaceous period (Australian Dinosaur Age Museum) have been found.

Matt White, research partner at the Australian Dinosaur Age Museum, said in a statement: Press release “Dinosaurs may be an important resource in the Cretaceous ecological food web,” the museum said.

“In the absence of globally comparable specimens, this prehistoric crocodile and its last food will continue to provide traces of the relationships and behaviors of animals that lived in Australia millions of years ago.”