Thursday 01 November, 2001
The dinosaur eating super-croc
Recently scientists released details of a giant super-crocodile. Dwarfing its modern relatives, it lived around 110 million years ago and grew to the length of a bus.
Speaking to Science In Action, the man in charge of the research, Dr Paul Sereno, explains how he unearthed a monster of major proportions.
Sarchosuchus imperator was truly enormous. Its head was two metres long, its body the size of a school bus and it weighed in at a full eight tonnes.
When the skeletons of this mighty beast were recently discovered in Niger, excited researchers quickly set about studying the specimen.
However, with its skull alone being encased in rock weighing half a tonne, the scientists soon realised that they had a monster task on their hands.
Eating
To dig out the skeleton, Dr Sereno and his team from the University of Chicago, US, spent two months working in the blistering heat of the Sahara.
During their excavation they began to piece together the habits of the super-croc and they soon discovered that it was anything but a fussy eater. Dr Sereno explains:
‘Cleaning the skull off we were surprised not to find a dedicated fish eater. We were finding an animal that was much more of a generalist predator. On the basis of its teeth, it was something that would have been taking down land animals as well as eating fish.’
The scientists spent a long time estimating the length of the crocodile. By comparing its skull with other recent finds they estimate that the animal could have reached as much as 40ft (11-12 metres) in length. Dr Sereno comments:
‘It’s too big to see over and it’s incredible because a crocodile is built like a missile and so the bodyweight is actually greater than a dinosaur of a similar size.’
| ‘T-Rex dinosaurs are big size dinosaurs at 40ft, but they weigh about half as much as this crocodile.’ | |
Hiding
Sarchosuchus imperator means ‘flesh crocodile emperor’ and as the researchers soon deduced, it would certainly have lived up to its name as a leader of the monsters. Dr Sereno explains:
‘I think it was a super-croc designed to take down dinosaur-sized animals wandering along the shore line.’
Despite its size the super-croc would have also been adept at hiding. Dr Sereno explains how evidence that the croc had eyes able to tilt upwards, indicate the beast's ability to lie in wait for its prey:
‘It could hide 99% of its body below the water. Everything but its eyeballs. So you can imagine this thing lurching out of the shallows. All of a sudden you have something of the order of eight, nine, ten tonnes pulling at you.’
Surviving
On land, the researchers think that the size of the animal would have meant it was less agile. With restricted movements and a ferocious hunger the monster would have struggled to survive.
One of the problems of being an animal with such a big appetite is that often there isn’t always enough food to go round as Dr Sereno explains:
‘It would have been difficult for an animal of this size to survive. The average size prey of a terrestrial animal is a good meal for one or two ordinary sized crocodiles, it would not suffice this animal.’
‘The only larger things that occasionally are eaten by crocodiles are elephants and hippos. It’s hard to imagine that there were enough of these around the banks to really allow a decent size population of super-crocs to survive.’
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| Supercroc.org |
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In an attempt to make science accessible to the public, Dr Sereno and his wife Gabrielle Lyon, have set up a non-profit making organisation called Project Exploration.
As part of their youth development programme they recently launched an interactive website, at www.supercroc.org, which includes lesson plans and details of the super-croc excavation, complete with photographs and sounds. |
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