The contents of the last meal of a freshwater crocodile that lived more than 95 million years ago, which at first stumped researchers have now been identified as a young dinosaur, according to a story from USA Today.
The bones of the new species of crocodile, called a Confractosuchus sauroktonos, were first discovered in 2010 in an eastern Australia rock bed from the Cretaceous period, according to the journal Gondwana Research.
Parts of the crocodile fossil were crushed, but researchers saw small bones in the stomach cavity that belonged to another animal. They do not know how the crocodile died but realized after X-rays and CT scans that the animal’s last meal was a juvenile dinosaur called an ornithopod.
Researchers believe the crocodile “either directly killed the animal or scavenged it quickly after its death.”
“While Confractosuchus would not have specialized in eating dinosaurs, it would not have overlooked an easy meal, such as the young ornithopod remains found in its stomach,” study co-author Matt A. White said.
The crocodile was around 8 feet long, but scientists say the animal would have grown much larger.
©2022 Cox Media Group
Sign Up
