February 19, 2011
Have you heard of a crocodile that preyed on dinosaurs? I don’t think I had, until I saw a cast of a fossil* at the Oakland Zoo. Called the SuperCroc — what else could you possibly call a crocodile that could eat a dinosaur — this prehistoric member of the crocodile family was about 42 feet long. Studies say that this creature lived in Africa 110 million years ago. The zoological name of the SuperCroc is Sarcosuchus imperator. This is a must-see.
Some facts that I found:
Fact sheet: All about SuperCrocs
Wikipedia: Sarcosuchus
*The fossil is said to have been found in the Sahara and unearthed by paleontologist Paul Sereno.
Categories
Nature
WOW! Nows thats one big croc!
Oh yes it is. It filled me with awe, just as the skeleton of a Blue Whale I once got to see. I should put that picture up too.
That is one huge croc!!
Hmm…I'm sure glad I wasn't around when the SuperCroc was. 😀
Beautiful exposure, lovely colours, one Dinosaur of a crocodile indeed!
Thank you so much, USP. Exposure – that's something I need to learn more about.
Yes. Dinosaur of a croc. Huge and thankfully extinct.
Wow!!!! Menacing!
Imagine what it would be like if it still walked the earth! Thank you for coming by, Jayashree. 🙂
Awesome!!!
Isn't it! I'm glad I got to see this fossil. It feels great to share these images too.
this was a revelation…. nice pics as well….
Thank you Santhosh. 🙂
Your supermoon picture took my breath away. Too good.
42 feet long!!! Goodness gracious me!! Even I am glad that I wasn’t there 110 million years ago or may be I was; may be I was that crocodile.
My kittens saw this photograph and got scared 🙁
Hmm… the fossil itself was humongous. I wonder what it must have been like with all its flesh and all. Scary! You just had to show these pictures to the poor kitties? Poor things, they must've had nightmares. I hope those links at the end were useful. That's for curious people like you 🙂
You never know, you just might have been a crocodile, a SuperCroc to be precise. :D.
Hey Deb, nice to know you have pet kittens. 🙂
This is amazing.
Isn't it? 🙂
Now that is something, really incredible!!
Incredible indeed. 🙂 It was really huge.
So the croc still caught the foot of the dinosaur and snapped and then went for the neck or how did it manage to eat dinosaur? Did it eat baby dinos, did it still wait in swamps for the dinos to come for a drink of water…how?
These are supposed to have been really big crocs. I believe it did wait for the dinosaurs to come by for some water. My reading tells me that like the rest of the family they probably waited patiently and when their prey came by they might have charged out of water and attacked 'neck first'.
I wonder what preyed on the SuperCrocs!
Really amazing !!! Its opened mouth frightens ! I wonder how they ate up the huge dinos… And I think, from somewhere I have heard that crocodiles themselves are a distant family member of dinosaurs ?!
Yeah Abhinav, the mouth is really terrifying, indeed. They are supposed to have had over a hundred of those enormous teeth. I just learnt that there were crocs smaller than the Supercroc, that also feasted on smaller dinosaurs that were just as big as them or smaller.
They might have been related. I wish somebody who knows would leave a comment for us; I know these pictures keep coming up on searches like crazy. Let's hope somebody with authority tells us a little more.
thank goodness I was not alive then 😀 !
Me too. Nitin. 🙂
Visit again, ok. 🙂
Thats very tiny 😛
hehe
informative 🙂
Yeah, yeah … I'm sure you find bigger ones in Tanjavur. ;).
Welcome back, Deepak.
Amazing !!!Thanks for sharing..:-)
🙂
You're welcome, Nagini.
incredible croc…nice snap/../
Incredible, it is. Thank you Sugato. 🙂
wow, that would have been one incredible dominant beast on the top of the food chain. Its a shame that beasts like this no longer exist at this size, but at the same time I'm glad they don't haha
Exactly, we'd have a lot to fear if this creature still existed. 🙂
Thank you for the visit. 🙂
Looks fascinating. Never heard or knew such a thing !! Thanks for the share though might have been interesting to see such a thing as in living world 😉
I didn't know about it until I saw this fossil a few years ago. It was great getting to know about it. You won't believe the amount of searches that are being made for the supercroc. It has been my top post for a really long time. Most of the views come from the searches for it. 🙂
Thank you for coming by, Dheeraj.
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