Thursday 01 November, 2001
The dinosaur eating
super-croc
Recently
scientists released details of a giant super-crocodile.
Dwarfing its modern relatives, it lived around 110 million
years ago and grew to the length of a bus.
Speaking to
Science In Action, the man in charge of the research,
Dr Paul Sereno, explains how he unearthed a monster of major
proportions.
Sarchosuchus imperator
was truly enormous. Its head was two metres long, its body the
size of a school bus and it weighed in at a full eight
tonnes.
When the skeletons of this
mighty beast were recently discovered in Niger, excited
researchers quickly set about studying the specimen.
However, with its skull alone being encased in rock
weighing half a tonne, the scientists soon realised that they
had a monster task on their hands.
Eating
To dig out the
skeleton, Dr Sereno and his team from the University of
Chicago, US, spent two months working in the blistering heat
of the Sahara.
During their excavation they began to
piece together the habits of the super-croc and they soon
discovered that it was anything but a fussy eater. Dr Sereno
explains:
‘Cleaning the skull off we were surprised not
to find a dedicated fish eater. We were finding an animal that
was much more of a generalist predator. On the basis of its
teeth, it was something that would have been taking down land
animals as well as eating fish.’
The scientists spent a
long time estimating the length of the crocodile. By comparing
its skull with other recent finds they estimate that the
animal could have reached as much as 40ft (11-12 metres) in
length. Dr Sereno comments:
‘It’s too big to see over
and it’s incredible because a crocodile is built like a
missile and so the bodyweight is actually greater than a
dinosaur of a similar size.’
| ‘T-Rex dinosaurs are big
size dinosaurs at 40ft, but they weigh about half
as much as this
crocodile.’ | |
Hiding
Sarchosuchus
imperator means ‘flesh crocodile emperor’ and as the
researchers soon deduced, it would certainly have lived up to
its name as a leader of the monsters. Dr Sereno
explains:
‘I think it was a super-croc designed to take
down dinosaur-sized animals wandering along the shore
line.’
Despite its size the super-croc would have also
been adept at hiding. Dr Sereno explains how evidence that the
croc had eyes able to tilt upwards, indicate the beast's
ability to lie in wait for its prey:
‘It could hide 99%
of its body below the water. Everything but its eyeballs. So
you can imagine this thing lurching out of the shallows. All
of a sudden you have something of the order of eight, nine,
ten tonnes pulling at you.’
Surviving
On land, the
researchers think that the size of the animal would have meant
it was less agile. With restricted movements and a ferocious
hunger the monster would have struggled to survive.
One of the problems of being an animal with such a big
appetite is that often there isn’t always enough food to go
round as Dr Sereno explains:
‘It would have been
difficult for an animal of this size to survive. The average
size prey of a terrestrial animal is a good meal for one or
two ordinary sized crocodiles, it would not suffice this
animal.’
‘The only larger things that occasionally are
eaten by crocodiles are elephants and hippos. It’s hard to
imagine that there were enough of these around the banks to
really allow a decent size population of super-crocs to
survive.’
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| Supercroc.org |
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In an attempt to make science
accessible to the public, Dr Sereno and his wife
Gabrielle Lyon, have set up a non-profit making
organisation called Project Exploration.
As part of their youth development
programme they recently launched an interactive
website, at www.supercroc.org, which includes
lesson plans and details of the super-croc
excavation, complete with photographs and
sounds. | |
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