The study sheds light on the adaptation which played the most important role in 'terror crocodiles' becoming a dinosaur-eating demon.
Scientists claim to have cracked the code that led to a massive prehistoric reptile known as the ‘terror crocodile’ to become an expert at dining on dinosaurs in North America .Deinosuchus – the name translates to ‘terror crocodile’ – roamed in rivers and estuaries in North America about 82 to 75 million years ago.
The terrific beast’s toothmarks have been found on dinosaur bones from the Cretaceous period, hinting that it either hunted or at least dined on dinosaurs.Previously, the massive reptile had also been called a ‘greater alligator’ by the experts. However, new research shows that it belongs to a different family tree of the crocodilian family compared to the crocodiles and alligators.The new paper published by experts sheds light on the one adaptation that played the most important role in these reptiles becoming a dinosaur-eating demon.The ‘terror crocodile’ adaptationThe scientists say that the bus-sized ancient reptiles with banana-sized teeth had a wide and long skull with a bulbous lump.The bulbous lump cannot be compared to anything that is seen in other crocodilians.The new paper proposes that the success of Deinosuchus in the era was largely owing to its adaptation to saltwater conditions. This feature is lacking in alligators today.The paper says that the ‘terror crocodile’ retained the salt glands found in the crocodilians, which existed in prehistoric times. These glands enabled them to tolerate salt water, much like the modern-day crocodiles.The scientists write that it is these salt glands that helped the Deinosuchus roam around the Western Interior Seaway, which divided North America back then. The ‘terror crocodiles’ were able to spread across the continent to reach coastal marshes on both sides of the inland sea, and along the Atlantic coast in North America.The paper presents a revised family tree for crocodilians, which offers a new perspective on the reasons behind climate resilience in some species.Evolution played a key role in making them dinosaur-munching monstersWith the Deinosuchus reaching areas where larger prey like dinosaurs existed, it slowly evolved to include them in its diet. This was something that its other alligatoroid cousins couldn’t adapt to.With time, the ‘terror crocodiles’ became as long as 26 feet or more in length, as a senior study author told CNN. This monstrous size allowed them to feast on pretty much whatever they wanted in the marshy regions.Earlier, the fossil finds on both sides of the vast inland seaway had confused experts. They were unsure of how the monster reptile had managed to cross a salty body of water that was spread across 620 miles .The experts then looked for the missing links that could explain how such a feat could have been achieved by the ‘terror crocodiles.’They found that many crocodilians had an ancient trait of saltwater tolerance, which later got lost in the alligatoroids.Experts also used molecular data from modern crocodilians to establish the difference in features from alligatoroids. It also helped establish a new family tree of the Deinosuchus, and the experts suggest it might have split long before the modern alligatoroids started evolving.The study mentions that the early alligators were a lot smaller than the other crocodilians that co-existed. They began to increase in size a lot later – around 34 million years ago – after the competition ended.However, while it was alive, the Deinosuchus would have been an absolute monster even among its distant relatives.There are records of other giant crocodiles existing, some as close as the 19th century, suggesting that massive size is the norm, rather than the exception.The study has been published in the journal Communications Biology.
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