New discovery of the ancient giant crocodile hunting dinosaurs

A new study shows that ancient giant alligators hunted dinosaur prey and killed them by spinning and tearing.

According to LiveScience, alligators are the largest of all reptiles that exist today. A saltwater crocodile is a carnivorous assassin who can reach 7 meters long and weigh more than 1 ton. These animals eat whatever they hunt, including sharks.

Saltwater crocodiles are very large, but their ancient relatives are much larger.The Sarcosuchus species in Africa and South America is 11.5m long and weighs 8 tons; Deinosuchus species in North America is 12m long, weighs 8.5 tons; even the Purussaurus in the Amazon plain is 13m long, weighs 10 tons.

Photo reconstruction of the crocodile Deinosuchus dinosaur attack

The fossils on the fossil show that the Deinosuchus species hunt prey like duckbill dinosaurs and bipedal dinosaurs called Theropod, including species like tyrants and winged dinosaurs.

Scientists also claim that the Sarcosuchus species may have hunted large dinosaurs, while the Purussaurus species hunt mammals like giant rodents and turtles and fish.

Like modern crocodiles, ancient crocodiles also use a spinning method to tear up prey. They clench their prey with their strong jaws and spin their prey to tear them apart. However, this way can create great force that affects their skulls.

To know whether ancient crocodiles have skull bones strong enough to withstand these pressures, scientists modeled the skulls of 16 existing crocodile species and three extinct other species.

They hypothesized that Deinosuchus and Purussaurus could use this prey, but the Sarcosuchus species are not because their mouths are quite narrow and the pressure created may be too large for their skull.

A skeleton of the crocodile Deinosuchus.(Source: Live Science)

Research results show that turning prey more easily with small predators, because of their compact size makes them easier to rotate. This means that this way is more suitable for growing predators than adults.

The study's lead author, Ernesto Blanco, an ancient biomechanics researcher at the Montevideo Physics Institute (Uruguay), said: "It is possible that large crocodiles have used other ways to tear off their bodies. They can simply swallow small prey. "

The researchers also noted that their research model has some uncertainties because 'we are working on extremely large crocodiles' , which means ' cannot completely eliminate the ability to rotate. tear off prey in Sarcosuchus' species.