EGU Blogs

Kimmeridge

Ancient crocodiles were a bit like killer whales. Go figure.

When you cast your mind back to the Mesozoic and think of the predators of the time, your mind goes to dinosaurs. You just thought of a T. rex didn’t you? Didn’t you. Crocodiles are the unsung heroes of the past, probably due to the fact that they’re still around today, so not considered as exotic as many of the extinct species we all know and love. But how similar were they to modern species? Or, how different were they? A new paper out in the open access journal PLoS ONE (which means you can read it for free!) looks into how a pair of ancient crocodile species from the Late Jurassic used to nosh the local residents. You’ll have to cast your mind back around 150 million years to a time when Europe was once a sea, teeming with creatures weird and wonderful, most of which now would see you as nothing more than a bipedal snack.

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