Ancient Dino-Eating Croc Had Huge Teeth, Dog Face

Ancient Dino-Eating Croc Had Huge Teeth, Dog Face
A crocodile fossil with large canine teeth and a skull is now information about the anatomy of a strange group of robbers have revealed scientist.

The fossil was excavated from a municipal worker in a small town in Minas Gerais, Brazil. It dates back 70 million years, just before the end of the age of the dinosaurs.

"While modern amphibious crocodiles have low and flat heads, this new find us as one of the first detailed insight into the head anatomy of this strange group called extinct crocodiles Baurusuchia that large, dog-like skull-function with enlarged canines and long-limbed body proportions "said researcher Hans Larsson of McGill University in Canada. [Pictures of monster reptiles]

The creature is named Pissarrachampsa sera. Pissarrachampsa means "a crocodile from piçarra," the local name for fossil sandstones and sera means "end", which, as it was one of the few fossils from the 2008 expedition, found that they revealed. It also refers to the local flag, Virgil quotes - "Libertas Quae Sera Tamen" - meaning "Freedom, although late."

The crocodile lurks almost certainly not like a log in a river as their modern relatives. "The stones from the rocky ledge where we found the fossils, as well as those from other areas indicate, on a hot and dry conditions for much of the region 70 million years," researcher Felipe Montefeltro, a paleontologist at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, told LiveScience.

Instead, the ecology of the predators was probably similar to wild dogs live in today, the researchers said. Given the number and size of teeth, probably fed to the crocodiles in animals about the same 15 - to 20-foot (4.5 to 6 meters) in size, including dinosaurs and crocodiles from the other region, the researchers say. Instead of scrambling over the ground like the crocodiles we see today would have galloped P. sera on long limbs.

Similar to other crocodiles of his time, this croc had armor plate, roughened surface for bone and massive fortifications mouth contact. Nevertheless, the line of crocodiles baurusuchid heard of this new fossil is unique for many anatomical features, such as unusually large canines, forward-facing nostrils and large, thin skull known.

"We are extremely divergent with a line of extinct crocodile to do diversity," said Montefeltro. "There are many fossils to be found to this crocodile for those who came before and after linking."

A digital reconstruction of the fossil brain cavity is in the works and revealing information about brain size and shape of the creature, and hearing. These results are in the fall at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting will be presented. The researchers are also in the rest of the internal structures of P. sera look in detail "for clues about how this crocodile lived and why it is so strange to find," said Montefeltro.

The scientists detailed their findings online 13th July in the journal PLoS ONE.