Discover new fossils related to crocodiles today

The fossil believed to be the link between the prehistoric crocodile and the crocodile today has just been shown for the first time. Paleontologist Felipe Mesquita de Vasconcellos introduced this 80 million-year-old Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi at a press conference at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Fossils were discovered in 2004 near the city of Monte Alto about 346 km from Sao Paulo.

The Montealtosuchus species, about 1.6 meters long, is a long and extremely flexible genus of animals that live in arid regions now in rural Brazil.

De Vasconcellos said: 'As a link to prehistoric crocodiles, it gives us a great opportunity to study the evolution of species. It has morphological features that exist in modern crocodiles and modern crocodiles. '

The details of this discovery are published in the October 2007 issue of Zootaxa.

The illustration of Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi, reconstructed based on its 80-million-year-old fossil was found only in Brazil.(Photo: AP)

Evolution of crocodile species

Michael J. Ryan, curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Ohio, said of the importance of discovery: 'We have very little evidence of species. Crocodile on the ground so discovered from Brazil can provide the missing link of evolutionary diversity. '

Two years ago, paleontologists from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro announced the discovery of a 70-million-year-old fossil of a crocodile-like reptile. The group named this species Uberabasuchus terrificus , meaning ' terrible crocodile of Uberaba .'

Uberabasuchus is smaller than the current crocodile - about 3 meters long and weighs about 295 kg.

The fossil of a prehistoric reptile named Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi was shown for the first time at a press conference in Brazil on January 31, 2008. The 80 million year old ground-dwelling predator could be ' eye Lack of chain 'between prehistoric crocodiles and crocodiles today. (Photo: National Geographic)