New species of crocodile who preyed on a young dinosaur found in Australia, say scientists

In a new discovery, a species of crocodile has been found in Queensland, Australia. It seems to be dating back to the Cretaceous period.

What’s special is that this 2.5-meter-long crocodile had a young dinosaur for its last meal, said scientists.

In 2010, the fossilized bones of a confractosuchus sauroktonos were excavated. The discovery was made at a sheep station near the Winton Formation, which is about 95-million-year-old geological rock bed.

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Scientists have also identified the partly digested remnants of a young ornithopod inside the stomach of the crocodile.

The findings of the research were published in the scientific journal ‘Gondwana Research’ on February 11.

In a statement, Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, which made the discovery, said that this is the first evidence of a crocodile preying on a dinosaur in Australia.

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Initially preserved in a siltstone mass, the crocodile sample had been partially crushed. But still, the damage revealed a number of small bones from the skeleton of a small Cretaceous creature.

To locate the bones inside the crocodile specimen, scientists used X-ray and CT scanning technologies. It also took around 10 months of computer processing to create a 3D reconstruction of the bones.

(With inputs from agencies)