Mexico City /
A group of scientists in australia announced the discovery of a new species of crocodile of the Cretaceous period, which lived 95 million years and among his diet was that of eat dinosaurs.
In 2010staff and volunteers of the Winton Australian Museum of the Age of Dinosaurs (AAODfor its acronym in English) found the fossil of this crocodile near the Winton’s Formationwhich is a geological deposit of approximately 95 million years.
fossilized remains were found preserved within a concretion of limolita blanda. And this new species of crocodile is known as confractosuchus sauroktonos. It is the second crocodile “dinosaur killer” discovered in Australia.
El Dr. Matt Whiteassociate researcher of the AAOD, was in charge of run the studio of this new species. Also involved in this work scientists at the University of New England and the Australian Organization for Science and nuclear technology.
How was the research carried out?
As crocodile bones within the concretion they were too brittle to be extracted by conventional methodsthe researchers decided to use microtomography scanning techniques of X-rays of neutrons and synchrotrons in order to be able to identify and study bone material.
Dr. White used the files of scanned data to make a 3D reconstruction of the bones of Confractosuchus sauroktonos, which required 10 months of computer processing to prepare the digital sign.
What was the results?
The study revealed that inside the stomach of the Confractosuchus were found the remains of a dinosaur with a bird’s hip, known as Ornithopodwhich weighed about 1,700 grams, but because it was partially digestedcould not know the weight with precision.
“While Confractosuchus would not have specialized in eating dinosaurs, it would not have missed an easy meal, such as the remains of the young ornithopod found in its stomach,” Dr White commented, adding that the water crocodile was about 2.5 meters long at the time of his death.
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