NATIONWIDE – Imagine a crocodile the size of a bus that preyed on dinosaurs and once inhabited what is now the United States. According to new research, the crocodylian Deinosuchus was that creature.
The research, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, specifies that the Deinosuchus, or “terror crocodile,” roamed North America between 75 and 82 million years ago.
In fact, there were several species of Deinosuchus. Deinosuchus shwimmeri lived in the east, roughly between what is now New Jersey and Mississippi, and Deinosuchus hatcheri and Deinosuchus riograndenis lived in the west, from Montana to northern Mexico.
"These were the largest semiaquatic predators in their environments and are known to have fed on large vertebrates, including contemporaneous terrestrial vertebrates such as dinosaurs. Fossils have been found in units of Campanian age from northern Mexico to Montana in the west and Mississippi to New Jersey in the east,” the study abstract states.
In fact, “terror crocodile” may be a little misleading. According to the authors, the creature is more closely related to the modern alligator than a crocodile, but it didn’t look a great deal like either of them.
Deinosuchus had a long and broad snout, at the end of which was located two holes. Its teeth were the size of bananas. Researchers believe, based on fossil evidence, that the creature possessed the head size and jaw strength to attack dinosaurs.
“Species of Deinosuchus are longer and heavier than their predatory competitors and are known to have fed upon dinosaurs through trace fossil analysis,” the study states.