'Crocodile hybrid' 240 million years old: Each tooth is a knife

One of the most terrifying beasts of its time identified from fossils unearthed in Tanzania is an archosaur, a group of crocodile-like reptiles of the Triassic period.

The beast is depicted by paleontologists as a hybrid crocodile with a dinosaur, a stocky, massive body with four tall legs and much more flexible than today's crocodiles.

According to Live Science, the creature was named Mambawakale ruhuhu, which means "ancient crocodile from the Ruhuhu River", where it was excavated.

"Portrait" of a crocodile-like lizard has just been identified

Professor Richard Butler from the University of Birmingham (UK), who led the study, said the beast was one of the largest predators of the mid-Triassic period (247 million to 237 million years ago), with length when alive about 5 meters.

Giant fossil skull

Its fossil was actually discovered in 1963, and then brought to London's Natural History Museum, but until now the mystery has not been answered.

According to the Daily Mail, the animal's skull is up to 75cm long, found with a left front leg quite complete, enough to reconstruct the entire body, even though the work takes many years. The most terrifying feature of the beast is the jaws are even more terrible than today's crocodile jaws, with each tooth like a small knife.

Animals with horror jaws

The beast belongs to the archosaur group, whose Vietnamese name is "king lizard" or "ancient reptile". In the Triassic period, this group of reptiles was one of the two main groups of reptiles, with a very similar appearance to crocodiles. The other group resembles mammals.

Thus, it is not exactly a crocodile, but also not a dinosaur, but an ancestral species with a complex relationship to both species.