A 95-million-year-old crocodile discovered in Australia with the remains of a dinosaur in its stomach.
This is an exceptional discovery that was made by Australian paleontologists: a new species of crocodile 95 million years old as well as the remains of a dinosaur in his stomach. Discovering a new species is already an event in itself, but with such a “surprise”, so to speak, it is truly exceptional.
95 million year old crocodile found in Australia
The species in question, discovered in Queensland, has been named Confractosuchus sauroktonos, according to a study published on February 10 in the journal Gondwana Research. According to the latter, the reptile lived in the Cretaceous regarding 95 million years ago and was regarding 2.5 meters long.
Besides this new species, it turned out that the specimen was not alone in its concretion. Paleontologists were lucky enough to discover last meal. They found the partially digested remains of a dinosaur juvenile ornithopod in the stomach of the predator.
with the remains of a dinosaur in the stomach
Joseph Bevitt of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO), said: “When first scans were done in 2015, I spotted a bone buried in there that looked like a chicken bone with a hook and I immediately thought it was a dinosaur.” Some time later, they discovered the remains of a small dinosaur: “The human eye had never been able to discern it before because it was, and still is, completely buried in rock.”
According to the researchers, the crocodile killed it or fed on it shortly following its death: “While Confractosuchus was probably not specialized in the predation of dinosaurs, it did not miss a meal. easy, like the remains of this young ornithopod found in its stomach,” explained Matt White, associate researcher at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum and co-author of the report.
This discovery therefore suggests that dinosaurs were “intrinsically part” of the Cretaceous ecology, as “scavengers, predators and as prey”. “It is likely that dinosaurs were an important resource in the Cretaceous ecological food chain.”
