When you think of "prehistoric crocodiles", what comes to mind? Many people may say emperor crocodile. The emperor crocodile is a new crocodile that lived in Africa and South America during the early Cretaceous period. It is huge, weighing an estimated 8,000 kg and measuring 11-12 metres.
Or you might think of crocodiles. Weighing about 5 tons and measuring 8-10 meters long, this giant false crocodile lived between 83 and 72 million years ago, about 4 million years before the Tyrannosaurus rex.
But the protagonists of this article are not them, but other super crocodiles that are often overlooked:
One of the often unknown species is the Prussian crocodile. According to recent studies, the alligator family can grow up to 10.9 meters and weigh 5.6 tons. It lived in the Miocene of South America, living in a vast freshwater inland sea, Lake Pebas.
In the genus Eucalyptus (crocodile subfamily), there have also been some extinct trolls. One of them is the Buti crocodile, an 11-meter-long beast from Pakistan's Balochistan province that lived in the Oligocene. As the largest known species of the true crocodile family, it is likely to feed on the giant rhinoceros, one of the largest land mammals ever recorded.
Another super crocodile is the Serbjanathson crocodile . It is a reptile that appeared in more recent times, inhabited Kenya during the Pliocene, and may even have hunted our human ancestors. It is not as large as the previous crocodiles, but also reaches 8 meters, and by the standards of modern crocodiles, it is still very huge.
The delta crocodile over 6 meters may be the smallest on the list, but it is still much larger than the typical saltwater crocodile today. In addition, it lived 95 million years ago, which means it could have been a dinosaur killer.
A considerable number of giant long-snouted crocodiles also appeared in prehistory. The largest is definitely the beaked crocodile, which is estimated to be up to 18 meters tall and is probably the largest long-snouted crocodile ever built. It lived in India during the Miocene.
Also in the Miocene, in the aforementioned Lake Pebas, there were hook-nosed crocodiles. The largest individual is estimated to be 10 meters long. It lasted for a long time in South America and did not disappear until the late Pleistocene.
Some hook-nosed crocodiles survived until the late Holocene and eventually became extinct in the Solomon Islands, being the most recently known fully marine crocodile.
There is also a super giant crocodile called the thick-beaked long-snouted crocodile, which belongs to the modern Ganges crocodile genus. According to research records, its body size may be comparable to the previously mentioned beaked crocodile, which means that it may be large. It also lived in India during the Miocene period.
In the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, there was a group of crocodiles known as the Sea Crocodile suborder, which were entirely marine animals and had flippers. The largest of these is the Machimo crocodile, which is more than 7 meters long. It lived in Europe during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Period.
Another giant sea crocodile is the plesiosaur, which is less than 7 meters long. Its fossils were found in late Jurassic rocks in England and Spain, so it is likely that it coexisted with the Macimo crocodile.
Head to Lake Pebas again, home to perhaps the strangest alligator in history, the Mora's crocodile. Apparently, it lives a filter-feeding lifestyle like baleen whales, filtering plankton in the lake rather than actively hunting. It is also one of the largest crocodiles ever built, up to 12 meters long.
However, the Mora crocodile is not the only filter-eating crocodile. In the late Cretaceous period, there was such a family of organisms called coelacos. The largest of these is the Egyptian crocodile, which lived in the same area as spinosaurus. It is estimated to be 10 meters long.
Another prehistoric crocodile worth mentioning is the Barinas crocodile. It lived in the Miocene and is an extinct South American terrestrial crocodile. It is 6 meters long and weighs a ton, making it the largest land predator ever recorded in the Cenozoic, and this is often referred to as the age of mammals.
In addition, its relatives, the ancestral monitor lizard crocodile, should also be listed. It is 7 meters long, longer but lighter than the zu monitor lizard crocodile, and lived in Madagascar in the Jurassic Period. It appears to be the island's top predator (despite living at the heyday of the dinosaur age), and its teeth are even larger than those of a T. rex.