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At the end of the Cretaceous there was an inland sea in the current North America. A place where the dinosaurs who came up to the bank ran a huge risk. A terror indescribable stalked the depths, waiting for its moment to strike: his name is Deinosuchus, the crocodile of terror, a creature that was the greatest predator of that environment, semi-aquatic . Their teeth the size of bananas, they could dig in the dinosaur more people and cause massive damage. Your body, similar to an aligator current, could reach up to 10 meters long.
The fossils of the genus Deinosuchus have been studied since 1850. But new research, published in “Vertebrate Paleontology” and carried out by scientists from the university of Iowa, united States, has re-evaluated now a lot of evidence. Thanks to that, they have concluded that there are three species of this group and not two, as was previously thought. It is of D. riograndensis, D. hatcheri and a new, D. schwimmeri.
“Deinosuchus was a giant that was terrorizing the dinosaurs that are close to the water’s edge to live,” said Adam Cossette, director of the study and researcher at the Institute of Technology of New York (united States), for “Sciencealert.com”. Until now, the full size of this creature was unknown. But with the specimens that we have examined, we have revealed the existence of a strange and monstrous predator, with teeth the size of bananas “.
According to Cossette, the three species of Deinosuchus emerged after a process of geological divisions in the inland sea of North America by half, thus ushering in three different environments in which over time developed the three species.
Fossil of the skull of “Deinosuchus schwimmeri” – Cossette & Brochu, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2020)
The observations show that these creatures are among the largest crocodiles, and terrifying that there have been a never. They had a look similar to an aligator current, with the subtle difference that reached ten meters long.
To Christopher Brochu, co-author of the work, the existence of these three species shows that ” the crocodiles are not “living fossils” that have not changed since the time of the dinosaurs but have evolved just as dynamically as any other group”.
researchers have concluded that D. riograndensis, and D. hatcheri lived to the west of North America, between Montana and the northern part of Mexico, while D. schwimmeri lived on the atlantic coast, between New Jersey and Mississippi.
Kings among the creatures
The fossils show that they were the kings of their time. “In the mometento in which they lived in the eastern united States, nothing big “, he said, to “Ledger-Enquirer” David Schwimmer, a researcher not involved in the study whose name, however, has christened the new species, given their important contributions to the field.
According to Schwimmer, there is a big open question: we have found tremendous marks of the teeth of Deinosuchus in dinosaur bones, but it is not known whether they did when azaban or, sencillametne carroñeaban.
“My bet is that they were predators,” said Schwimmer. “This creature was a large enough to finish off most of the dinosaurs . In addition, most of the brands we have found on bones of legs and tails. This is the place where they cogerías if you wanted to grab a dinosaur”. How would it be that terrible moment, in which one of these animals captured one of their prey?
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