Last week I read a post about the latest discovery of the North African crocodile, sent out the picture to everyone's excitement, I said to write it, and then found myself digging a hole for myself. Since you have to cash in on what you say, I'm going to hand in my homework today. Introducing the largest marine crocodile ever found, the Machimosaurus rex.
The largest sea crocodile
Paleontologists are digging up fossils of the monarch Marchimo crocodile, pictured from the Web
The fossil of King Marchimo crocodile, the shape of its skull can already be seen, the picture comes from the Internet
Mesozoic North Africa was a world of giants, and the trolls we are familiar with include spinosaurs, shark-toothed dragons, tidal dragons, and emperor crocodiles. Not long ago, a new crocodile was named, the King Marchimo crocodile (species name). The fossils of the King Machimo crocodile were found in the desert of Morocco, and their fossils included a skull 1.6 meters long, and the entire excavation was sponsored by National Geographic.
The excavation team took a group photo with the fossil of the monarch Marchimo crocodile, pictured from the internet
In January 2016, the research team published an article in Cretaceous Studies titled "The Largest Thalattosuchian Proves that the True Lizard Crocodile Crossed the Jurassic-Cretaceous Dividing Line" (The largest thalattosuchian (Crocodylomorpha) supports teleosauridsurvival across the the." Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary) paper, officially named the king Marchimo crocodile.
Various sea crocodiles living in the Mesozoic Era, picture from the Web
According to the fossils of the King March Tyrannosaurus crocodile, its body length can reach 9.6 meters and weigh 2.7 tons. The Monarch Macimo crocodile is the largest sea crocodile found so far, and other sea crocodiles that survived in the Mesozoic Era are smaller than it in size, such as the famous Dako dragon and the ground lizard crocodile. Some people will say that the Prussian crocodile, the emperor crocodile, and the crocodile are all larger than the King Machemo crocodile, which is true, but they are not sea crocodiles, and I do not say that the Monarch Marchimo crocodile is the largest crocodile known so far.
Underwater maniacs in North Africa
The fossil skull of the monarch Marchimo crocodile, which has a flat and long shape, the image comes from the Internet
The king Officinosa crocodile has a long head and a thinned snout, with two rows of short, rounded, sharp teeth in its mouth. The monarch Marchimo crocodile's nose grew at the top of the front of the head, allowing it to float out to the surface of the sea to breathe, and its eyes also grew above its head, like today's crocodiles. The Monarch Marchimo crocodile has a thinner body, but its tail is long and wide, which can provide strong power when the tail swings from side to side. On both sides of the body of the monarch Marchimo crocodile, there are two pairs of webbed limbs at the front and back, and its main role is to maintain the balance of the body and steering. In appearance, the Monarch Marchimo crocodile has been used in the life of the ocean, which is able to swim quickly underwater.
The skull of the Monarch Marchimo crocodile and its size compared to humans, picture from the paper
Participated in the study by paleontologist Federico of the University of Bologna in Italy. Federico Fanti pointed out that the skull of the monarch Marchimo crocodile is large, the teeth are short and thick, round, and should have a strong bite force, which is enough to bite into the hard turtle shell. In the recipes of the King's Macimo crocodile, various fish are the main dish, and animals such as turtles are side dishes.
The Monarch Marchimo crocodile would also lurk in the water like today's crocodiles, the image comes from the Internet
The food of the Monarch Marchimo crocodile is not limited to the small fish and shrimp in the ocean, they will also ambush under the water near the shore like today's crocodiles, waiting for the careless dinosaur to arrive, and then launch a surprise attack to drag the other party underwater and drown. Bite marks left by the Macimo crocodile have been found on a piece of the skeleton of a whale dragon found in the United Kingdom. It should be pointed out here that although they all lived in North Africa, the famous spinosaurs, shark-toothed dragons, and emperor crocodiles during the survival of the king Machimo crocodile have not yet appeared, so it has no chance to meet these giant animals and roll up its sleeves to fight.
The last Marchimo crocodile
King Marchimo crocodile living in the ocean, picture from the Internet
Throughout this article I have been using the full name Machimosaurus rex, which includes genera and species names, as the Monarch Macimo crocodile is not the only species found in the genus Macchimo crocodile.
Compared to other members of the genus, the skull (far right) of The King Machimo Crocodile is the largest, and the image comes from the internet
The earliest fossils of the Macimo crocodile were found in Switzerland in the early 19th century, named after the famous German paleontologist von Schüner, which is the largest crocodile-shaped superorder known during the Jurassic period. There are currently 5 species in the genus Macimo Crocodile, and the Monarch Macimo Crocodile is the newly named species and the largest species. Judging from the fossils of the Macimo crocodile, which once lived in today's Switzerland, France, Britain, Portugal, Germany, Austria and Morocco, it seems that it has its shadow throughout Europe. The distribution of the Macimo crocodile is related to the land and sea distribution from the late Jurassic to the early Cretaceous, when the Tethys Sea covered today's Europe and northern Africa, and this ocean became home to the Marchimo crocodile.
Fossils of the Macimo crocodile (not the King Marchimo crocodile), image from the Internet
The three species of the Machimo crocodile genus, the size is obviously not as large as the king Machimo crocodile, the picture comes from the Internet
The discovery of the monarch Marchimo crocodile not only refreshed the size limit of the sea crocodile, but also extended the lower limit of the survival of the genus Marchimo crocodile to the early Cretaceous period, which is 130 million to 120 million years ago. Previously, it was believed that there was an extinction event at the end of the Jurassic, and that the genus Macchimo was gone through this extinction, and now it seems that they not only survived the difficult period but also became larger.
The Macimo crocodile is a very unique marine crocodile, and its body structure is not completely marine like that of the Dako dragon, which gives it the ability to return to land. The discovery of the Monarch Machimo crocodile has brought the sea crocodile to a size of nearly 10 meters, and perhaps in the future paleontologists will find larger individuals.
Resources:
1.Federico Fanti, Tetsuto Miyashita, LuigiCantelli, Fawsi Mnasri, Jihed Dridi, Michela Contessi, Andrea Cau. The largestthalattosuchian (Crocodylomorpha) supports teleosaurid survival across theJurassic-Cretaceous boundary, Cretaceous Research, Available online 10 January2016.
2.Steel R. 1973. Crocodylia. Handbuch derPaläoherpetologie, Teil 16.Stuttgart:Gustav Fischer Verlag,116 pp.
3.Mateus, O. 2013. Crocodylomorphs from theMesozoic of Portugal and a new skull of eusuchian from the Late Cretaceous.Abstract book of Hwaseong International Dinosaurs Expedition Symposium, South Korea,pp: 66-68.
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