Scientists have confirmed that a massive 93-million-year-old crocodile found in Central Queensland had devoured a baby dinosaur based on remains found in its fossilised stomach contents.
The crocodile Confractosuchus sauroktonos, which translates as “broken crocodile dinosaur killer,” was about 2m to 2.5m in length (6.5ft to 8ft), according to the study published in the journal Gondwana Research.
The word “broken” in the crocodile’s name refers to the massive, shattered boulder from where the fossils were uncovered, said the scientists from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.
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After the fossils were first discovered in 2010, early studies detected bones of the small chicken-sized juvenile dinosaur in the gut. The juvenile reptile was an unidentified ornithopod, a group of medium to large plant-eating dinosaurs. The partially-digested dinosaur may have weighed around 1kg to 1.7kg.
Scientists say a “staggering” 35 per cent of the crocodile was preserved, including a “near-complete skull”, showing the arrangement of teeth, although the tail and hind limb were missing.
Read more: The Independent
