Giant prehistoric crocodile ;shieldcroc; identified

Discovered in Morocco and subsequently carted off to the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, the head sat ignored for nearly a decade before Casey Holliday, a paleontologist at the University of Missouri decided to look a little deeper. After analysis the head piece turned out to be from an animal that belonged to the family crocodyliforms, which of course is where modern crocodiles, alligators, caimans and others come from.

Interestingly, despite its massive size, the old croc appears to have been rather weak jawed, and thus was more likely to eat fish swimming by (such as the car-length coelacanths) than grabbing animals off the shore and twisting them down into the water to drown them as modern crocs do.

Holliday believes the shield was used to help cool the animal, due to the presence of skin and blood vessels similar to those in the frill of triceratops. Thus it would have been too soft to serve as protection, which makes Holliday believe it was likely mostly used to either frighten off other males, or to attract females.

Also, because the head fragment was found in Morocco, new fuel has been added to fire in the ongoing debate among paleontologists regarding the origins of crocodyliforms. This new evidence points to North Africa of course, near the Mediterranean, though many still believe the original location was much farther north But since we’re talking about animals that lived around a hundred million years ago; so far back that land masses were configured differently from today, it’s likely the arguments will go on without ever being proved one way or the other.

Holliday says the shieldcroc likely had an extra long face that was sort of flat with a roundish nose and small teeth. Its head alone was likely the size of a full-grown man. He also believes the giant beast’s feeding habits were more like modern pelicans than crocodiles and alligators.

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