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SuperCroc
VOA photo - M.
Leland |
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One of the top predators of
the dinosaur era in Africa was a creature that looks like
today's crocodiles. Two years ago, a team of scientists from
the University of Chicago found the most complete skeleton to
date of what they call "SuperCroc." The dinosaur is now on
display in Chicago.
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Paul Sereno
Michael Leland
photo, VOA |
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Its head was two meters
long. Its body was about 12 meters long and weighed nearly
eight metric tons. Its real name is Sarcosuchus imperator,
which means, "flesh crocodile emperor," but Chicago
paleontologist Paul Sereno calls it SuperCroc. He and his team
found it in Niger two years ago.
"The first thing we walked up to was the skull of this
animal. It was just stunning that there was an animal this big
that would have been terrorizing dinosaurs, where we came to
find Africa's dinosaurs," Paul said.
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SuperCroc
VOA photo - M.
Leland |
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French scientists were the
first to discover this species, about 40 years ago. SuperCroc
is the most complete skeleton found to date about 50 percent.
Paul's wife and colleague, Gabrielle Lyon, says her team's
discovery is helping researchers learn more about its size,
eating habits, and habitat.
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| Rendition of a fight between
SuperCroc (right) and the dinosaur Suchomimus in
present-day Niger |
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"We had known, as many
paleontologists have known, that there was a giant crocodile
out there. When we actually found its skeleton and really
started to understand just how large it was and that we would
be able to build this skeleton, that was a great feeling,"
Gabrielle said.
Mr. Sereno says SuperCroc lived 110 million years ago and
most likely ate dinosaurs. Large ones, like the 11-meter-long
Suchomimus. During its two-month dig in the year 2000, his
team collected not only the SuperCroc's bones, but also other
artifacts in the area.
"If we left those clues in the desert, we would not have
been able to do what we did here, make a scene painting for
example. But, we didn't. We collected the petrified wood,
sawed it with a diamond saw to see what the climate was like,
because the wood preserves that as a record. We picked up
every other kind of bone we could find in the area to
understand what it was living with," Paul Sereno said.
The Sereno team has found previously undiscovered species
of dinosaurs in Niger. Suchomimus was one of them, discovered
in 1997. Others will be announced in the months and years
ahead. Gabrielle Lyon calls Niger the most important location
for learning about African dinosaur evolution.
"It holds all of the chapters of dinosaur evolution. One of
the remarkable things is, yes, it is the Sahara Desert now,
but 110 million years ago, and even 10,000 years ago, it was a
very wet place: lush, with rivers, enormous trees, huge fish
were living there," Ms. Lyon said.
During its 2000 dig, the Sereno team communicated with
schoolchildren back in the United States, using the Internet
and a satellite telephone. Part of the SuperCroc exhibit at
Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry recreates the team's
desert camp and its messages back home.
"The fossils were scarcer than in our first area, but that
did not stop us from finding a complete upper jaw of this new
dinosaur that lived alongside Suchomimus," was one of Paul's
messages back home.
Gabrielle Lyon also heads an organization called "Project
Exploration," which tries to make science interesting and fun
for children. At this exhibit, there are dinosaur fossils and
other artifacts visitors can touch, and maybe spark a child's
interest in becoming a scientist.
"You never know when that magic moment, when that bell will
go off, when that switch is going to be thrown. We are trying
to create an environment where it is more likely that that
will happen," Mr.Lyon said.
The Sereno team of paleontologists plans to return to the
Sahara Desert next year.
