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Old May 31st, 2014 #255
Matthaus Hetzenauer
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Originally Posted by Alex Linder View Post
When a 900-Pound Croc Takes on a 58-Foot Snake
By Stephenie Livingston, University of Florida | May 30, 2014


A new crocodilian species lived in freshwater rivers 60 million years ago, in close proximity to Titanoboa, a monster snake that would have been a formidable threat, says Jonathan Bloch. "Every once in a while, there was likely an encounter between Anthracosuchus and Titanoboa. Titanoboa was the largest predator around and would have tried to eat anything it could get its mouth on." (University of Florida)

An ancient, 16-foot, 900-pound crocodile may have been overmatched by a monster snake that swam in the same rivers 60 million years ago.

The newly named reptile, Anthracosuchus balrogus, which had an unusually blunt snout for species in the dyrosaurids family, was unearthed from the same layer of rock as the 58-foot Titanoboa in the Cerrejon coal mine of northern Colombia.

The species opens a window to the early adaptability and diversity of tropical crocodyliforms, which may help scientists better understand how living crocodiles adapt to changing environments today, says lead author Alex Hastings, a postdoctoral researcher at Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg and former graduate student in the geological sciences department at the University of Florida and at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

“It quickly became clear that the four fossil specimens were unlike any dyrosaur species ever found,” he says.

The species’ short snout paired with large jaw muscles typical of dyrosaurids, would give it an incredibly powerful bite, Hastings says. “Everyone thinks that crocodiles are living fossils that have remained virtually unchanged for the last 250 million years. But what we’re finding in the fossil record tells a very different story.”

Researchers were stunned when they first saw the new species, says Jonathan Bloch, a coauthor of the study, published in the journal Historical Biology, and associate curator of vertebrate paleonotolgy at the Florida Museum.

“We couldn’t believe it had such a boxy, short skull and that it was still a dyrosaur,” he says. “It really busts the mold for these animals. It is such a completely different looking beast than we’ve seen for these crocodile-like animals.”

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/7056...58-foot-snake/
What a fuckin' pic! Wow!!

(wonder how that would look as an av...)
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