The larger of them was an unknown species of crocodile, which was about 2.5 meters long – so in its time it belonged to the smaller ones. A detailed analysis showed that it was probably a younger animal. He had a small dinosaur in his stomach, about the size of today’s hen – he weighed about one kilogram. This dinosaur was an ornithopod, a lizard close to modern birds. It is impossible to say what kind of species he belonged to, because his stay in the crocodile digestive tract significantly damaged him.
The newly discovered crocodile was then named by Confractosuchus sauroktonos, which means “broken dinosaur killer”.
Why is it important?
Modern crocodiles are known for being able to eat virtually anything. Paleontologists assumed that their prehistoric ancestors, who could feed on dinosaurs regularly, had the same ability. But so far there has been no evidence of this: so far only two prehistoric crocodiles with somehow identifiable stomach contents have been found. In neither case was it a dinosaur.
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The new discovery is therefore unique in that it finally provided scientists with clear evidence that at least some species of dinosaurs became the food of crocodiles.
At the same time, the fossil brings a riddle. Why did the crocodile die so soon after eating the dinosaur? Scientists do not yet know the answer, but they have an interesting hypothesis: the tastiest part of a crocodile’s body is its tail – it is large, muscular and full of energy. But confractosuch’s tail is completely missing; so it is possible that the eaten reptile became the prey of some larger dinosaur.
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