A six-metre croc with three sets of fangs is among the five ancient relatives of modern-day crocodiles found in the Sahara Desert, scientists said Thursday.Three of the fossils, discovered by researchers led by Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and Hans Larsson of McGill University, represent newly named species.
The fossil remains were found in a series of expeditions beginning in 2000.
All of the prehistoric crocs lived about 100 million years ago in the southern super-continent known as Gondwana, when the region that is now the Sahara featured dinosaurs and grassy plains criss-crossed by rivers.
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Crocodile ancestors found in Sahara
Category: Paleontology
Posted on: November 23, 2009 9:04 AM, by Greg Laden
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Comments
And one is a CrocoDuck!
Posted by: Sean | November 23, 2009 9:40 AM
Which modern species are these fossils ancestors of?
Posted by: Jim Thomerson | November 23, 2009 9:55 AM
no wonder they went extinct. stoopid aquatic reptiles tried living in the Sahara!
:)
Posted by: rob | November 23, 2009 1:41 PM
I'm gonna pretend Sean didn't say that because I want to shout it out: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a CrocoDuck!"
Posted by: SQB | November 23, 2009 3:19 PM
I made an animated GIF to fully illustrate this glorious find:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2637/4130509077_f8a75915dd_o.gif
Posted by: Sean | November 24, 2009 10:30 AM