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Deinosuchus rugosus
Topic Started: Jan 8 2012, 01:55 PM (13,449 Views)
Taipan
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Deinosuchus rugosus

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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Crocodilia
Suborder: Eusuchia
Superfamily: Alligatoroidea
Genus: Deinosuchus
Species: Deinosuchus rugosus

Deinosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatorid from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) of North America. It was thought for several decades to be the largest crocodilian that ever lived. Deinosuchus is known mainly from skull material, and recent studies have reduced its estimated length. Some other giant crocodilians, including Sarcosuchus (the "SuperCroc"), Purussaurus and Rhamphosuchus, were as big or bigger, but accurate comparisons are difficult as Sarcosuchus is the only species known from a largely-complete skeleton.

Size
The skull of Deinosuchus measures more than 2 m (6.6 ft) from front to back and has a broad rather than narrow snout. Recent studies have reduced the estimate of the animal's total length from more than 15 m (50 ft) to between 10 and 12 m (33 and 40 ft respectively). Even at this reduced estimate, Deinosuchus was still considerably larger than the saltwater crocodile of Australia, Southern and Southeast Asia, which is the biggest living reptile.

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Diet & Habitat
The proportions of Deinosuchus are similar to the skull of today's Nile crocodile, which is a generalist carnivore that hunts fish, crustaceans, and large mammals, such as wildebeest and zebra.

Deinosuchus probably lurked in rivers and swamps waiting for prey to come and drink from the waters edge (much like modern species). It would then have grabbed its prey in its massive jaws, containing large but somewhat blunt teeth, and then drag it into the water to drown. Perhaps it would have spun lengthways to tear off chunks of flesh (the "death roll" behaviour in modern species). It most likely preyed on fish, dinosaurs (especially the abundant hadrosaurs of the time), and anything else that strayed too close to the water.

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Deinosuchus specimens have been discovered in freshwater and marine deposits.

Discovery and classification
The type species, Deinosuchus hatcheri was found by Holland at Willow Creek, Montana, in the Judith River Formation. Specimens from Big Bend National Park in Texas were originally assigned to the genus Phobosuchus in 1954 by Colbert and Bird, but are now assigned to Deinosuchus as the species D. riograndensis. Specimens have also been found in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Wyoming, New Mexico and recently also in Mexico.

Originally classified in the family Crocodylidae, a better skull specimen shows it is likeliest a basal alligator in the superfamily Alligatoroidea.

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Taipan
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Ancient Reptile Dined on Dinosaurs

By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 18 March 2010 01:42 pm ET

An ancient crocodile-like animal, about twice the length of an SUV, probably dined on sea turtles and dinosaurs, suggests bite-mark evidence and dung droppings.

The giant reptile called Deinosuchus was up to 29 feet long (nearly 9 meters), and likely adorned Georgia's shores, in the United States, about 79 million years ago, much as modern crocodiles dot the shores of the West Nile, the researchers say.

While the animals weren't true crocodiles, they were members of the crocodilian group and more closely related to alligators than crocs (alligators and crocodiles are closely related but distinct species). Either way, the new findings show the beast was tough, taking down dinosaurs its own size.

"We're sure (Deinosuchus) ate a lot of sea turtles, but it's evident it liked to prey on dinosaurs too," said David Schwimmer, a Columbus State paleontologist, who recently completed two studies on the giant crocodile with one of his students, Samantha Harrell.

The team analyzed various specimens of dinosaurs and sea turtles, along with the crocodilian's teeth, which were typically broken at the tips. Schwimmer said the breakage suggests a diet that included hard foods, like bone material.

"These things had very thick blunt teeth, built like little hub caps, especially the back teeth," Schwimmer said.

Several dinosaur bones showing the distinctive bite marks, including the tailbones of duck-billed dinosaurs found in the western United States, and the leg bone of a small carnivorous dinosaur, whose remains are stored at a New Jersey museum.

"The [leg] bone was so chewed that it was distorted, and it looked like a chew toy, like a dog had been working on it," Schwimmer told LiveScience. "It was covered with crocodilian bites."

Similar marks were found on turtle shells.

Fossilized feces were also collected along the banks of the Hannahatchee Creek in Stewart County, a major tributary of the Chattahoochee River, in Georgia. Poop analyses provided some support for their predator-prey conclusions. The so-called coprolites were each about a half-foot long (15 centimeters) and 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.6 cm) in diameter, or "about the size we'd expect to come out of one of these animals," Schwimmer said, referring to the crocodilians.

The feces showed no sign of bones, which is what would be expected even if the animals were chowing on dinosaur bones. "Crocodilians have very strong digestive acids and bones get dissolved," he said.

Within the coprolites, Harrell found sand and lots of shell fragments. The results indicated the ancient crocs lived in a shallow, warm-water environment, perhaps near the mouth of a river where there may have been an abundance of sea turtles.

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The presacral vertebra, or tailbone, of a hadrosaur (type of duck-billed dinosaur) specimen from Texas shows 10 circular bite marks, likely from a giant crocodilian species that lived some 79 million years ago.

http://www.livescience.com/animals/crocodile-ate-dinosaurs-bite-marks-100318.html
Edited by Taipan, May 14 2013, 04:34 PM.
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Taipan
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Feces, Bite Marks Flesh Out Giant Dino-Eating Crocs

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A Deinosuchus lunges at an Albertosaurus in an artist's conception.

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
Published March 23, 2010

Rock-hard feces and oddly bitten bones are helping to flesh out one of the biggest crocs of prehistory, researchers say.

As long as a stretch limo, Deinosuchus—"terrible crocodile"—likely prowled shallow waters and hunted dinosaurs its own size, the evidence suggests.

Last week paleontologists announced their conclusions after analyzing pieces of 79-million-year-old fossilized dung, or coprolites, that appear to be the first known droppings from Deinosuchus­. The discoveries offer the newest insights into the lives of the giant crocs, which roamed much of what is now the United States and northern Mexico.

Sand and shell fragments in the droppings, found within the last few years near a Georgia stream, suggest the croc preferred estuaries, where, at least in the Georgia—home to a great concentration of Deinosuchus remains—it probably dined mostly on sea turtles, researchers say.

Despite the Georgia Deinosuchus­'s relatively docile prey, "we're pretty sure it was the apex predator in this region," said Samantha Harrell, an undergraduate at Columbus State University in Georgia, who presented her research March 17 at a Geological Society of America meeting in Baltimore.

The team also found a fossilized shark tooth embedded in the outside of a coprolite. But because the tooth bears no signs of having been digested, the team suspects a shark left the tooth behind when scavenging on Deinosuchus droppings.

What the researchers didn't find in the feces are bone or other bits of undigested animals.

"That's actually good," Harrell said, "because both modern and ancient crocs have digestive juices that eat up bone, horns, teeth, and just about everything else"—so the "empty" dung supports the idea that the feces are from a croc.

Crocs vs. Dinosaurs

Outside Georgia, Deinosuchus­ apparently took on slightly more challenging prey, according to older bite-mark evidence, which Columbus State paleontologist David R. Schwimmer presented alongside Harrell at the meeting.

Deinosuchus­ tooth impressions in the bones of their prey tell the tale of titanic battles in which the 29-foot-long (9-meter-long) crocs took down dinosaurs their own size—including the T. rex relatives Appalachiosaurus montgomeriensis and Albertosaurus (see picture below).

"One of the marks shows signs that the bone was healed, which means that the animal survived the bite," Schwimmer said.

"That proves that at least this one specimen was obviously [indicative of] predation and not scavenging."

Schwimmer first noticed strange, dimpled, egg-shaped indentations in Georgia sea turtle fossils. Later he saw similar marks in dinosaur bones in Big Bend National Park in Texas and in the New Jersey State Museum.

"I realized these bites were from something with really powerful jaws and lots of teeth," he said. "And it was pretty obvious that this big, blunt-toothed croc was the source.

"There was nothing else I've found that could create blunt bite marks like these."

Uncouth Eater

Tooth marks, though, can show us only part of the picture, said Stephanie Drumheller, an expert on ancient crocodile bites.

"Modern crocodilians"—crocodiles, alligators, and related extinct forms—"are more than capable of swallowing smaller prey whole and disarticulating larger animals into bite-sized pieces," leaving little evidence behind, said Drumheller, a Ph.D. candidate in geoscience at the University of Iowa.

"We can infer that a giant like Deinosuchus would be capable of even more destructive feeding behaviors."

The bite-mark evidence that does exist, though, raises a question: Why would a croc capable of taking down big, meaty dinosaurs waste its energy on turtles? In a word: location.

Modern crocs, which hunt a wide range of prey, eat whatever's available in their areas. The same factor may have determined whether <i>Deinosuchus</i> individuals feasted largely on turtles or dinosaurs or other prey, Drumheller said.

Giant Crocs Not Built to Last?

North America-born Deinosuchus also underscores that giant crocs arose at different places and times, said University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, who discovered 110-million-year-old Sarcosuchus imperator—aka SuperCroc—in Niger.

"In Deinosuchus, and independently in SuperCroc, we have two lineages, one older than the other, that [prove] crocodile bodies grew to a gargantuan size—to dinosaur size," said Sereno, a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence.

Deinosuchus, which lived just before the close of the Cretaceous period, is more closely related to modern croc lineages than SuperCroc—yet still faded to extinction.

What happened to these prehistoric leviathans?

A fully grown giant male croc likely would have had to commandeer miles of river territory to regularly find enough prey sustain itself, Sereno explained. So space constraints likely kept population numbers low—making the giant crocs vulnerable to extinction in tough times.

"It appears that every once in a while the right conditions arise for giant crocs," Sereno said. "But they usually don't last."

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100323-giant-croc-crocodile-dinosaurs-deinosuchus-feces-poop/
Edited by Taipan, Dec 29 2017, 01:46 PM.
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JMD
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Unicellular Organism
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Here's one of my favorite prehistoric animals by far. Taking down tyrannosaurids, even T. Rex, is just awesome.
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dinosaur
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This massive killer had been estimated 12m and 8.5 tons. However Deinosuchus could probably exceed 15m and 12 tons.
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Shaochilong
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That is a horrific overestimate. More recent studies suggest 10 m and 6 t.
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Super Kaizer Ghidorah
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But Deino could weigh more than 11 tons
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7Alx
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11-15 tons??

Maybe only in your (probably fanboyish) dream lol

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Jinfengopteryx
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Stop pulling numbers out of nothing. Please.

EDIT: Too slow.
Edited by Jinfengopteryx, May 11 2013, 06:08 AM.
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Teratophoneus
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I think something like 10m and 5t is more likely, I could be wrong.
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retic
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snake and dinosaur enthusiast
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deinosuchus grew up to 12 meters. 15 meters is outdated.
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Super Kaizer Ghidorah
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7Alx
May 11 2013, 06:06 AM
11-15 tons??

Maybe only in your (probably fanboyish) dream lol

He actually is. I may be a fanboy.

prehistoric.wikia.com/wiki/Deinosuchus‎
Deinosuchus was one of the largest CROCS OVER 15 m long and 12 tons.The largest, crocodilian of...
HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS!? HUH?!
Edited by Super Kaizer Ghidorah, May 14 2013, 05:45 AM.
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Ausar
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Xi-miqa-can! Xi-miqa-can! Xi-miqa-can!
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Super Kaizer Ghidorah
May 14 2013, 05:38 AM
7Alx
May 11 2013, 06:06 AM
11-15 tons??

Maybe only in your (probably fanboyish) dream lol

He actually is. I may be a fanboy.

prehistoric.wikia.com/wiki/Deinosuchus‎
Deinosuchus was one of the largest CROCS OVER 15 m long and 12 tons.The largest, crocodilian of...
HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS!? HUH?!
Outdated. How many times do we have to tell you this estimate is outdated? And that source is very unreliable.
Edited by Ausar, May 14 2013, 06:02 AM.
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Super Kaizer Ghidorah
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But all because scientisit found a 9.4 ton deinosuchus, doesn t mean it is the biggest. There is probably a bigger one somewhere in the world.

Also,
I am not a big fanboy.

THIS IS BEING A BIG FANBOY!
Deinosuchus is cool and is powerful. Its enemies better watch out for his death rays, he shoots from his eyes!
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blaze
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You are oversizing its size by 200-300% how's that for not being a big fanboy?
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