93-million-year-old crocodile uncovered with baby dinosaur in its belly
21.02.2022 - 14:55
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A 93-million-year-old crocodile has been discovered by scientists - with an infant dinosaur found in its stomach.
Experts have dubbed the creature Confractosuchus Sauroktonos or "broken crocodile dinosaur killer", with its last meal of a prehistoric baby still in the belly.
A report for Gondwana Research stated that the giant reptile grew to roughly 2.5m (6-8ft), with scientists believing it died after being caught in a flood.
The croc was reportedly 35% preserved with a "near-complete skull" and its impressive teeth still intact.
It was examined more closely by researchers using 3D scans and X-rays, according to the Mirror.
Joseph Bevitt, a co-author of the study, told Indy100: "In the initial scan in 2015, I spotted a buried bone in there that looked like a chicken bone with a hook on it and thought straight away that it was a dinosaur.
"Human eyes had never seen it previously, as it was, and still is, totally encased in rock.
"The fossilised remains were found in a large boulder. Concretions often form when organic matter, or say a crocodile, sinks to the bottom of a river."
Scientists believe it was preserved because the mud surrounding the creature hardened because of the bacteria which were present.
Scans of one boulder detected "bones of the small chicken-sized juvenile dinosaur in the gut", the species, however, has not been formally identified.
Dr Bevitt said: “In the initial scan in 2015, I spotted a buried bone in there that looked like a chicken bone with a hook on it and thought straight away that it was a dinosaur.”
He told Australian Nuclear Science and Technology (Ansto): “3D digital scans from the Imaging and Medical Beamline guided the physical preparation of the crocodile, which was impossible without