WASHINGTON (AP) - A 20-foot-long crocodile with three sets of fangs — like wild boar tusks — roamed parts of northern Africa millions of years ago, researchers reported Thursday.
While this fearsome creature hunted meat, not far away another newly found type of croc with a wide, flat snout like a pancake was fishing for food.
In this image released by National Geographic, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno, enveloped by the jaws of SuperCroc, holds the fossil head of DogCroc. DogCroc, along with four other newly described crocs, lived in the Sahara when the 8-ton SuperCroc did, at a time when dinosaurs ruled.
An image from NASA's LCROSS satellite shows the plume from the lunar impact of its ejected rocket, taken about 20 seconds after impact.
NASA
Paleontologist Richard Forrest measures the jaw bone of a fossilized pliosaur found on the southern coast of England in Dorchester, England Tuesday Oct. 27, 2009. A local council says the fossilized skull of a giant sea monster has been found off the southern coast of England. The fossil came from a pliosaur, a ferocious predator that lived in the oceans 150 million years ago. The skull was discovered in Dorset by a collector and measures 2.4 meters (8 feet) in length. The discovery was announced Tuesday. Scientists believe the creature would have been some 16 meters (52 feet) long.
AP Photo/Chris Ison/PA Wire
Paleontologist Richard Forrest measures the jaw bone of a fossilized pliosaur found on the southern coast of England in Dorchester, England Tuesday Oct. 27, 2009. A local council says the fossilized skull of a giant sea monster has been found off the southern coast of England. The fossil came from a pliosaur, a ferocious predator that lived in the oceans 150 million years ago. The skull was discovered in Dorset by a collector and measures 2.4 meters (8 feet) in length. The discovery was announced Tuesday. Scientists believe the creature would have been some 16 meters (52 feet) long.
AP Photo/Chris Ison/PA Wire
Researchers have discovered a new species of giant spider, the largest of its kind ever found. The saucer-sized arachnid, dubbed Nephila komaci, is similar to its slightly smaller cousin pictured here on its metre-wide web.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Matjaz Kuntner
Scientists have found a spider in Central America that eats mostly plants, the only known vegetarian in an estimated 40,000 spider species. Above a female Bagheera kiplingi spider eats a Beltian body harvested from an Acacia plant.
(R. L. Curry)
What killed off the dinosaurs? Many scientists think it was the impact form a giant space rock. But where exactly did that impact occur?
AP
This undated photo provided Wednesday Oct.14, 2009 by Lumiere Technology in Paris shows the site of the fingerprint on a painting that art experts believe they have identified as a new Leonardo da Vinci. Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert, said Tuesday that a fingerprint on what was presumed to be a 19th-century German painting of a young woman has convinced art experts that it's actually a da Vinci.
AP Photo/HO/Lumiere Technology.com
This undated photo provided Wednesday Oct. 14, 2009 by Lumiere Technology in Paris shows a fingerprint on a painting that art experts believe they have identified as a new Leonardo da Vinci. Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert, said Tuesday that a fingerprint on what was presumed to be a 19th-century German painting of a young woman has convinced art experts that it's actually a da Vinci.
AP Photo/HO/Lumiere Technology.com
This photo provided by the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) Tuesday Oct. 6, 2009 shows a dinosaur print in Plagne, eastern France, on April 5, 2009. According to scientists, the prints are supposed to be the biggest in the world and the site hosts many prints.
AP Photo/Hubert Ragueet, CNRS
This is an artists impression provided by the University of Manchester, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009, of the Blue Stonehenge in western England. The drawing shows how scientists believe the ?Blue Stonehenge? discovered by a team of archaeologists on the west bank of the River Avon in September 2009 may have looked. Researchers say a new find near the famous Stonehenge monument shows the religious significance of the site. The smaller prehistoric site is being called "Bluehenge" because of the color of the stones that were placed there thousands of years ago but have since disappeared. All that is left are the holes made when the stones were put in place. Researchers believe the newly discovered stone circle and the larger Stonehenge circle may mark a "domain of the dead" that was linked to the "domain of the living" by the River Avon. Experts say the stones were incorporated into the circle in about 2,500 B.C.
AP Photo/ Peter Dunn/University of Manchester
And a smaller, 3-foot-long relative with buckteeth was chomping plants and grubs in the same region.
The three new species, along with new examples of two previously known ancient crocodiles, were detailed Thursday by researchers Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and Hans Larsson of McGill University in Montreal. They spoke at a news conference organized by the National Geographic Society, which sponsored the research.
"These species open a window on a croc world completely foreign to what was living on northern continents," Sereno said of the unusual animals that lived 100 million years ago on the southern continent known as Gondwana.
Hans Dieter Sues of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History said the discovery revises the ideas of what crocodile-type reptiles were like.
"It's a joy for anyone who is interested in ancient life to see," said Sues, an editor at ZooKeys, which published the findings.
All the better to eat you with? Paleontologist Richard Forrest measures the jawbone of a fossilized pliosaur that was discovered off the coast of England. The massive sea monster trawled the ocean 150 million years ago. The skull alone stretched 8 feet; the entire creature, 52 feet. The discovery was announced Oct. 27.
Scientists in South Africa said Wednesday they found the remains of a new dinosaur species -- a discovery that could shed significant light on how the creatures evolved. Aardonyx celestae, which roamed the Earth some 200 million years ago, was a small-headed herbivore with huge barrel of a chest. Here, the animal's bones sit on display in Johannesburg.
Denis Farrell, AP
All the better to eat you with? Paleontologist Richard Forrest measures the jawbone of a fossilized pliosaur that was discovered off the coast of England. The massive sea monster trawled the ocean 150 million years ago. The skull alone stretched 8 feet; the entire creature, 52 feet. The discovery was announced Oct. 27.
Chris Ison, PA / AP
The most complete skeleton of a pot-bellied dinosaur, called a therizinosaur, was found in Utah and reported on July 15. The dinosaur, illustrated here, lived 93 million years ago. Its stumpy legs and large gut suggest it was a plant eater, scientists said.
Victor Leshyk, LiveScience.com
At the start of July, scientists confirmed that big and fast dinosaurs once roamed Australia, including a vicious meat-eater larger than the Velociraptors depicted in the "Jurassic Park" movies. In all, three new dinosaurs were identified. Here, paleontologist Scott Hocknull analyzes fossils from the Diamantinasaurus matildae, a hippo-like herbivore.
Queensland Museum / AP
This 3-inch jawbone fossil is from a piranha ancestor that measured up to 3 feet long, four times bigger than its modern descendants. Megapiranha paranensis lived around 9 million years ago and could be a link between today's flesh-eating piranhas and their vegetarian cousins, pacu. The fossil was found in Argentina in the early 1900s, but was not studied until the 1980s.
Mark Sabaj-Perez / LiveScience
Scientists on May 19 unveiled the skeleton of this 47-million-year-old creature from Germany that could provide clues into the early evolution of primates. While the well-preserved creature is not a direct ancestor of humans, it may provide an indication of what that ancestor may have looked like, experts said.
Mary Altaffer, AP
Paleontologists found a rare prehistoric pregnant turtle in a remote area of southern Utah on May 9. The fossil is just the second ever found to still have a clutch of eggs inside. Here, a technician prepares to run the 75-million-year-old fossil through a scanner.
Kelly Gorham, Montana State University / AP
This was one big bird. Paleontologists working in coastal Peru found this well-preserved fossilized cranium of a giant seabird that lived 8 million to 10 million years ago, scientists said Feb. 27. Here, a paleontologist cleans the fossil at the National History Museum in Lima, Peru.
Martin Mejia, AP
The remains of a mammoth and an American lion were among the 16 Ice Age fossil deposits scientists unearthed near the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles in 2006. Here, excavator Andrea Thomer, of the city's George C. Page Museum, stands beside some of the finds on Feb. 11. "It's like a paleontological Christmas," Thomer wrote in a July blog entry.
Genaro Molina, Los Angeles Times
Fossilized bones from a pregnant whale show that the water-based animal gave birth on land. The rare find provides a vital scientific link in the evolution of the seafaring mammal. The mother's skull is pictured as white with red teeth in this photo released Feb. 4. The fetus is pictured in blue with orange teeth.
University of Michigan / LiveScience.com
The researchers suggest that these crocs could gallop across the landscape chasing prey and yet dive into water and swim.
"My African crocs appeared to have had both upright, agile legs for bounding overland and a versatile tail for paddling in water," Sereno wrote in an article for National Geographic magazine. "Their amphibious talents in the past may be the key to understanding how they flourished in, and ultimately survived, the dinosaur era."
They weren't racehorses, Sereno said, but they could move quickly. Freshwater crocs in Australia manage to eat a few people every year and these would have been able to do as well, he said. However, there were no people around at the time.
The newly discovered species are:
— Kaprosuchus saharicus, nicknamed "BoarCroc," found in Niger. BoarCroc was a 20-foot-long meat-eater with an armored snout for ramming and three sets of dagger-shaped fangs for slicing. The tusks stuck out above and below the jaw like a modern warthog, said Larsson. "This has never been seen before on any crocodile."
— Araripesuchus rattoides, which the researchers call "RatCroc," found in Morocco. This 3-foot-long croc was a plant- and grub-eater with a pair of buckteeth in the lower jaw it used to dig for food.
— Laganosuchus thaumastos, or "PancakeCroc," found in Niger and Morocco. Also 20 feet long, it was a squat fish-eater with a 3-foot pancake-flat head and spike-shaped teeth on slender jaws. Sereno said it probably remained motionless for hours, its jaws open and waiting for prey.
In addition the researchers found new fossils of two previously named species:
— Anatosuchus minor, "DuckCroc," found in Niger, a 3-foot-long fish-, frog- and grub-eater with a broad snout and Pinocchio-like nose. Special sensory areas on the snout end allowed it to root around on the shore and in shallow water for prey. Its closest relative is in Madagascar.
— Araripesuchus wegeneri, or "DogCroc," found in Niger, a 3-foot-long plant- and grub-eater with a soft, doglike nose pointing forward.
Sereno has focused since 2000 on fossils in the Sahara Desert, his first find being Sarcosuchus imperator, a 40-foot-long creature that would have weighed 8 tons and which he called "SuperCroc."
The new findings are detailed in the journal ZooKeys as well as National Geographic magazine and a documentary scheduled for Saturday on the National Geographic Channel.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper holds a case of Yuengling beer presented to him outside his home by U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson. The beer was part of a wager the PM had with President Obama on the outcome of the Olympic gold medal hockey game which Canada won.
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