Crocodiles cannibalize people may have been heard of, but have you ever seen an 8-meter-long super giant crocodile?
According to Taiwan Provincial People's Television News, on July 19 this year, in Indonesia's North Kalimantan province, a man disappeared after being attacked by an 8-meter crocodile, and the local police searched for 3 days before finding the "murderer" and found the remains of the deceased from its stomach.
The 8-meter giant crocodile eats people
In Indonesia, the waters are a very dangerous place, where 17 different species of crocodiles live, especially the famous bay crocodile, which often attacks humans. Indonesians are well aware of this, but since the country is made up of 17,000 islands with a dense internal water network, it is inevitable that locals will swim in the river and bathe, and even work on the water for a long time.
Indonesian Borneo Floating Market
Barry, 45, is already a father of three and earns a living by catching fish and shrimp in a nearby river for his family's livelihood. Usually, you can always hear the news that someone has been swallowed by a crocodile, but what can be done? On this day, Barry was fishing in the river as usual, when suddenly a giant crocodile emerged from the water and took him away.
The police who learned of the news immediately launched a search and rescue operation near the big river, and they initially found a 4-meter crocodile and a 5-meter crocodile, and suspected that the missing man was swallowed by them. But after the vomiting, the police did not find the remains of the human body from the food scraps they spat out. After three days of hard work, they finally found an 8-meter-long giant crocodile and found the man's body from its vomit.
Even Indonesians who have seen many giant crocodiles are very shocked, most of the crocodiles they have seen before are only 4 meters long, and these 8 meters long crocodiles really exist? In fact, it is difficult to confirm from the news that the body length of this crocodile really reached 8 meters. Because the photos taken at the scene are very blurry, the captured crocodiles are only half exposed, and it is difficult to judge their body length.
But in fact, it can be seen that this crocodile is not as large as imagined, and seems to be comparable to the size of the average adult crocodile, which may reach up to 6 meters long. Because the largest crocodile that modern people can see is probably that long. For example, there was once a captive bay crocodile with a body length of 6.1 meters, it was called "Luolong", and there are records that it ate at least 3 people.
Loron
In addition, there is a bay crocodile named Chris, who was shot by Australians for his evil deeds, and it is said that its length has reached a terrifying 8.6 meters, but this is not confirmed as the 8-meter giant crocodile found this time.
How scary is the 8-meter crocodile?
Imagine if the current crocodile could really grow to 8 meters long, how terrible it would be? Do you know that a crocodile only needs to grow to 4 meters to attack humans and eat adult males, if it grows to 8 meters, it is not a bite?
In the movie "Million Crocodile", there is such a mutant crocodile up to 8 meters long. It runs extremely fast on land, burrowing into grass and lakes in an instant. This is true, the world record for crocodiles to run on land is 17 km / h, although not as fast as most beasts, but it has been able to surpass most humans. If combined with their weight of more than 4 tons, they can create an impact comparable to that of a car, destroy walls, and knock people out of 10 meters.
The most terrifying part of the 8-meter crocodile is not their land speed, because the larger the crocodile, the more difficult it is for their limbs to support the body, if the crocodile can exceed 10 meters in length, then it is likely that they will never be able to go ashore again, but can only live in the water.
It's just that they are very explosive, and they like to ambush, and if people are targeted by it, they will almost be unable to react to being attacked within a few meters. Even if you react, their bite force and sharp teeth, which are comparable to those of great white sharks, will make you despair in an instant.
When people began to notice such behemoths and began to fight back with anesthetics and props, the giant crocodile's hard scales stopped it all. Their scales are like a pair of strong armor, enough to withstand the attack of various cold weapons, almost can be said to be invincible.
In the film, when humans begin to send out armies armed with guns, it has fled into the vast West Lake. In the water, the speed and strength of the giant crocodile are perfectly combined, and through its huge body, it can easily overturn a small boat and then drag the humans on board into the water. Cautious crocodiles do not like to fight, and often when they catch prey or are attacked, they will immediately retract into the water.
The largest crocodile on earth
Although there may not be an 8-meter-long giant crocodile in modern times, in their 200 million-year-long evolutionary history, there has really been such a prehistoric giant beast, which is the imperial crocodile.
Fossils of monarch crocodiles were found in the Sahara Desert in the African Republic of Niger, where paleontologists have recreated their bodies through fossils. In the early Cretaceous Period, about 110 million years ago, the emperor crocodiles were born, and they could reach 8 to 13 meters in length and weigh 4 to 11 tons, which was the same level as the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Because they are not as tall as Tyrannosaurus rex and are amphibians, they mainly inhabit rainforest swamps and plain lakes.
The imperial crocodile hunts in a similar way to most crocodiles today, especially the brutal bay crocodile. They first lurk in the swamps of rivers and lakes, slowly approach the riverbank, and then unexpectedly bite the animals that live by the river to drink water and drag them into the water. It is speculated that the bite force of the imperial crocodile can reach up to 4 tons, which is comparable to that of the Tyrannosaurus rex, and once it is bitten, it can no longer get out.
Then they will perform a set of "death rolls" in the water, tearing the skin and flesh or neck of these animals, making them incapacitated and even alive. Finally eat slowly. With this method of hunting, even some large dinosaurs were in danger of becoming food.
If the Tyrannosaurus rex was the master of the land at that time, then the imperial crocodile was definitely the overlord of freshwater rivers and lakes, and there were almost no natural enemies. Although titan pythons are 10-15 meters long live here, they are often at a disadvantage against the God King Crocodile and the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The python's most threatening attack is nothing more than death entanglement, strangling prey through its slender body. But this had little effect on the monarch crocodile, because the scales on the crocodile at this time were not only strong, but also had sharp spikes, and the Titan Python's attempt to hunt them was undoubtedly a way to kill them.
In the Brazilian and Amazon rainforests, the ancestor of the caiman crocodile, the Prussian crocodile, lives. Early archaeologists estimated that their body length could reach 14 meters long, and then gradually dropped to 10-12 meters, slightly shorter than the emperor crocodile. But its fierceness is not inferior. Because of their sharp teeth in their large mouths, they can reach a bite force of 7 tons at once, which is even more terrifying than that of a Tyrannosaurus rex, and even the shell of a giant turtle can be easily crushed.
From ancient times to the present, the size of pythons and crocodiles has been greatly reduced. In general, the current python can reach a length of 7 meters, and the largest giant crocodile may not exceed 6 meters. Around the world, though, these reduced monsters still threaten human life.