Crocodiles can always be equated with viciousness and coldness in our impression, and thriller horror movies such as "Killing Crocodile Pond" and "Prehistoric Crocodile" have deepened this impression. Compared to the crocodiles that lived on prehistoric Earth, most of the crocodiles on Earth today are little guys. In order to introduce the famous crocodiles in prehistory more comprehensively and systematically, the little robber dragon has sorted together the relevant popular science articles previously released to form the "prehistoric giant crocodile" series, hoping to satisfy everyone's curiosity about the prehistoric giant crocodile.
The fourth in the "Prehistoric Giant Crocodile" series is the spiny crocodile, which can be called the "Baleen Whale of the Mesozoic Era".
At the beginning of the last century, the German paleontologist Ernst Stromeau came to Egypt before the outbreak of World War I. For this strange country, Stemer decided to base itself in Alexandria for three expeditions. The expedition headed west to the Baihariya oasis in the Sahara Desert, where huge bones were rumored to have been found!
Photo note: German paleontologist Steus, picture from the Internet
Illustration: In the Desert of North Africa, Stimo, picture from the Internet
When Stetmo arrived at his destination in early 1911, he soon discovered many huge fossils, including a femur more than 1 meter long, as well as a huge skull with a special shape. The discovery in the oasis delighted Stemau, who immediately packed the found fossils on a ship and shipped them back to Germany, which were eventually displayed in the Paläontologische museum münchen in Munich, southern Germany.
In 1915, After studying fossils, Stimo first named the famous Spinosaurus, the largest known carnivorous dinosaur. Among the many fossils found, Stemer also noticed a large, flat skull that resembled a long strip of lid. After some research, Stemer believed that this "long lid" belonged to some kind of giant prehistoric crocodile, so he established the genus Stomatosuchus.
Note: Fossils of acanthocon without acanthosis, picture from the web
Caption: Skull and body restoration of acanthaceous crocodile, image from the Internet
The genus name "stomatosuchus" comes from the Latin word for "crocodile with a big mouth", and the genus name graphically shows its huge mouth. The model species name of the coelacanth is s. inermis), the model species means "no weapon", representing that the teeth in its mouth are not lethal against large animals. From the perspective of the genus species name, what we usually call the spiny crocodile is actually the full name of the coelacanth model species.
The spinous crocodile is a large prehistoric giant crocodile, although only the skull has been found, but according to the head-to-body ratio of today's crocodiles, paleontologists speculate that this guy is more than 10 meters long and weighs about 6 tons.
Illustration: Comparison of the body size of the spiny crocodile with that of humans, image from the network
Unlike the famous crocodile and the emperor crocodile, the spiny crocodile has a washboard face with a confused face. The skull of the spiny crocodile resembles a long strip of washboard, with a regular shape, its nose growing on the rounded snout and a pair of eyes on the top of the head. In the broad upper jaw of the spinous crocodile there are two rows of small teeth only 2 to 3 cm long, and the lower jaw may also have the same small teeth. The jaw of the spiny crocodile is very thin, like a washer for a toilet, and there may be no teeth on it. The slender mandible is connected to the muscle tissue and skin with good elasticity, eventually forming a super large skin sac similar to a pelican at its throat.
Illustration: Flat head of a non-spinous crocodile, picture from the internet
Illustration note: Restoration of the spiny crocodile, picture from the network
Like today's crocodiles, the spiny crocodile has a bloated body, short limbs, and a thick tail behind it. The neck, back, and tail of the spinosaurus crocodile have hard bone pieces that protect it from other predators, such as spinosaurs.
The echinococcate crocodile lived in northern Africa between 100 million and 94 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous Period, and its habitat is at the confluence of land and sea. Animals that live with spiny crocodiles include carnivorous dinosaurs such as spinosaurs, sharktooth dragons, delta dragons, plant-feeding tidal dragons, Egyptian dragons, etc., in addition to various fish, turtles, reptiles and pterosaurs.
Illustration: The world where the spiny crocodile lives, the picture comes from the network
Don't look at the size of the spiny crocodile, but it is harmless to large animals. When large animals come to the surface of the water or the sea, the spiny crocodile will lazily lie on the beach to bask in the sun, or look for small food in the water, and it will never suddenly rush out and drag other animals into the water with a big mouth.
Picture note: Pelican with a membrane on its mouth, image from the Internet
Image note: Baleen whales swallow small fish, image from the Internet
The spiny crocodile will slowly advance in the shallow sea, and when it finds a school of fish near the surface of the water, it will quickly rush up from the bottom of the sea, opening its large mouth at the moment of approaching the fish and sucking the small fish into its mouth. At this time, the large skin sac at the jaw and throat of the spinous crocodile will hold a large amount of food and seawater, which will drain the seawater and swallow the small fish and shrimp into the stomach. Spiny crocodiles hunted in a similar way to today's baleen whales, so they became known as "Mesozoic baleen whales".
Although it is more than 10 meters in size and can enter the prehistoric giant crocodile club, the spiny cavity crocodile is not scary at all compared with the crocodile, the emperor crocodile, and the Prussian crocodile. The spiny crocodile could not hurt other large animals at all, so it was basically harmless to the dinosaurs of its time.
Illustration: Images of spinosaurs preying on juvenile spiny crocodiles are from the Internet
The spiny crocodile is not only harmless, but also vulnerable to attack during the growth phase. Without sharp teeth and a strong bite force, the young spiny crocodile lacks the ability to fight back, and when attacked by carnivorous dinosaurs and other predators, it has to sneak into the water and sneak away. When the spiny crocodile is fully grown, its huge size can ensure its own safety.
Acanthocecus belongs to the reptile, crocodile-shaped superorder, stomatosuchidae, in addition to the acanthaceous crocodile, there is also the genus laganosuchus .) All of the spiny crocodiles (in fact, there are only two genera) live in northern Africa of the Senorman order, and they are fish-eating crocodiles with special skull structures.
Picture note: A close relative of the non-spinous crocodile, the picture comes from the Internet
When the fossil of the spiny crocodile was studied, it was preserved in the museum. Despite the protection of gates, fences, walls, and cabinets, the only fossilized skull of a spiny crocodile has not escaped the human war. On April 27, 1944, Germany, in the midst of World War II, was defeated on all fronts, and nearly a thousand heavy bombers of the American Eighth Air Force bombed Munich. The Paleontological Museum in Munich was hit by a bomb during the bombing, and the museum and the precious fossils in it were all blown up, and the fossils of the spiny crocodile were not spared, along with the first spinosaurus fossil.
Picture note: American bombers on bombing missions, picture from the network
Image note: The bombed museum, picture from the Internet
After the end of world war II, despite the continuous paleontological investigations and excavations carried out by paleontologists from various countries in the North African region of Egypt, no fossils of the echinococete crocodile were found, and this prehistoric giant crocodile was "extinct" by humans again.
Resources:
1.naish, d. 2002. fossils explained 34: crocodilians. geology today 2: 71-77.
2.stromer, e. (1925) results of prof. e. stromer's research trips in the deserts of Egypt. ii. vertebrate remains of the baharije stage (lowest cenoman). 7. stomatosuchus inermis stromer, a weakly toothed crocodile and 8. a skeletal remnant of the pristiden onchopristis numidus huag sp. abhandlungen der königlich bayerischen akademie der wissenschaften, mathematisch-physikalische klasse 30: 1–22.
3.sereno, p. c.; larsson, h. c. e. (2009). "cretaceous crocodyliforms from the sahara". zookeys 28 (2009): 1–143. doi:10.3897/zookeys.28.325.
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Text / Paleontological Exploration (Jiang Hong)
Typography / Paleontological exploration