Detecting giant crocodile fossils 6 meters long

A new group of American researchers found fossils of a 6m-long, extinct giant crocodile in a coal mine in Colombia. This finding was published in the journal Paleontology by US researchers.

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Fossils are found in Cerrejon mine in northern Colombia, one of the largest coal mines in the world. Perhaps this giant crocodile must live at the same time as the world's largest snake and can even compete with it.

This freshwater crocodile, named Acherontisuchus guajiraensis , lives in the ancient rainforest ecosystem about 60 million years ago during the Palaeocene period.

The habitat was then dominated by reptiles, including giant snakes, turtles and crocodiles. This is the fossil associated with the second crocodile excavated from the Cerrejon mine.

Giant crocodiles eat fish that can compete with giant snakes (Photo: BBC)

The temperature at the time was much higher than it is now, and scientists say that studying the diversity of animals in this ecosystem can help them better understand the climate impact in the future. hybrid

It lived at the same time as the giant snake called Titanoboa , which could be up to 13m long.

Scientists say that A. guajiraensis specializes in eating fish, which means it will compete with Titanoboa for food.

'Young individuals are definitely not safe with Titanoboa snakes, but the biggest crocodile can fight more for 13m snakes , ' said lead author Alex Hastings, from the Florida Museum of Natural History. to speak.

New species belong to a group of major crocodiles that live in the ocean, or are coastal reptiles.

With this fossil the adult crocodile will present new challenges to the previous theory that animals have entered the freshwater environment when young and then return to the sea.

This crocodile is the largest of all crocodiles living at that time and compared to crocodiles today.