Giant walking crocodile terrorised Earth

[Still Waters]

A terrifying crocodile which walked on its hind legs may have been the most deadly creature on Earth before the evolution of the biggest dinosaurs.

The newly discovered Carnufex carolinensis, or "Carolina Butcher," was a 9-foot long, land-dwelling proto-crocodile with huge snapping jaws.

It preyed on early mammals and armoured reptiles in the Late Triassic period, around 231 million years ago, when the Earth had just one huge continent, Pangea.

http://www.telegraph...-dinosaurs.html

[+Hammerclaw]

I wonder what triggered that Triassic Extinction event?

[+OverSword]

Oh come on! They found part of a skull part of the spine and part of a forelimb and now know that there were 9 foot tall upright walking crocodylomorphs? Sounds like pokemon to me.

Edited March 19, 2015 by OverSword

[DefenceMinisterMishkin]

Oh come on! They found part of a skull part of the spine and part of a forelimb and now know that there were 9 foot tall walking crocodylomorphs? Sounds like pokemon to me.

Gotta catch em all..

[bubblykiss]

This world would be a better, more magical place if gigantic crocodiles predated upon everything alive.

[Grandpa Greenman]

Now we know were the Reptilian people came from.

[Sundew]

I noticed the illustration showed the animal as a tail dragger, much like the old ideas of some of the Sauropod dinosaurs. Is it likely a bipedal animal would drag its tail, it would soon be bloody from wear?

[Atuke]

I agree with some above posters. So hard to take this speculation based on a few bones. Just like Giganto was a quadraped based on four molar teeth and a partial jaw. I know I'll get ripped because of my speculation on Bigfoot without actual hands on evidence, but we are talking real bones here. How was this a two-legged tail dragger?

[PersonFromPorlock]

I dunno. I look at all these illustrations of bipedal dinosaurs and I just can't see their centers of gravity being over their rear legs. I keep expecting them to fall over forward. Has anyone ever actually worked out where the CG on these critters would be?

[Sundew]

I dunno. I look at all these illustrations of bipedal dinosaurs and I just can't see their centers of gravity being over their rear legs. I keep expecting them to fall over forward. Has anyone ever actually worked out where the CG on these critters would be?

Give them time, but until they come up with a more complete specimen and more data it's a lot of speculation as to how it stood, ran and held its body and tail.

[Whatsinausername]

It actually had six legs and a dislocatable jaw which enabled it to eat prehistoric lobsters

[Harte]

I agree with some above posters. So hard to take this speculation based on a few bones. Just like Giganto was a quadraped based on four molar teeth and a partial jaw. I know I'll get ripped because of my speculation on Bigfoot without actual hands on evidence, but we are talking real bones here. How was this a two-legged tail dragger?

Forelimb bones alone is enough to determine whether the animal walked on four legs or not.

As for the tail, they can't actually say without pelvic bones or a femur. So, they go by the morphology of related species that they know the morphology of until they can get more fossils.

Harte

[Holographic60]

Regarding the "Reptilian Brain" in humans...

http://www.crystalin...ilianbrain.html

Edited March 21, 2015 by Holographic60

[Ashyne]

So it seems these bipedal crocodiles eventually evolved into the Reptilians who built spaceships and left the planet to survive the Mass Extinction and then returned to Earth in the UFO sightings we see today. Maybe they want to retake the Earth.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Ashyne

[aquatus1]

I dunno. I look at all these illustrations of bipedal dinosaurs and I just can't see their centers of gravity being over their rear legs. I keep expecting them to fall over forward. Has anyone ever actually worked out where the CG on these critters would be?

Strangely enough:

.

[GlitterRose]

I'm immediately thinking of the crocodile clock tower in the movie Hook.

[thedemon]

That is one bad a** lizard.

[Zalmoxis]

I read this article on Google yesterday. I guess, as they characterize this reptile, it would've appeared much like Godzilla. Disappeared before the dinosaurs appeared. So you could say that crocodiles and the crocodiles ancestors retain all the qualities of a dinosaur but they are not a dinosaur.

[F3SS]

I noticed the illustration showed the animal as a tail dragger, much like the old ideas of some of the Sauropod dinosaurs. Is it likely a bipedal animal would drag its tail, it would soon be bloody from wear?

Really tough scales, plates, callouses. Probably scales to callouses that start developing at the beginning of their life which is plenty of time to develop some under tail armor that could also decay without leaving a fossil. How long would a big dinosaur like the have lived anyway? 50, 100, 200 years? Plates would probably have fossil record by now.

[SameerPrehistorica]

What a name...... Carolina Butcher.

[F3SS]

I meant to ask above... A big dinosaur like the Trex...

[Galahad]

I'm thinking about Godzilla now..don't really know why.