A fossilised crocodile has been found with the remains of a dinosaur in its stomach, proving that croc ancestors ate some large species of prehistoric reptiles.
When paleontologists unearthed the fossilised skeleton of a previously unknown species of crocodyliform, the specimen contained in its abdomen the exceptionally well-preserved remains of a juvenile dinosaur.
The species, called Confractosuchus sauroktonos, lived in what is now Queensland, Australia, about 95 million years ago.
Crocodyliforms include modern day crocodiles and alligators as well as their ancestors, which lived alongside dinosaurs for millions of years.
Scientists had long believed that the reptile's ancestors dined on dinosaurs when the opportunity arose, backed by previous evidence such as bite marks on fossilised dinosaur bones.
But this is only the second extinct crocodyliform fossil with identifiable stomach contents – and the first to show a dinosaur had been eaten.
The fossilised remains comprised a near-complete skull with teeth and some of its skeleton, which was missing the tail and hind limbs.
“Confractosuchus is only the second extinct crocodyliform so far discovered with identifiable abdominal contents and the first to include indisputably dinosaurian remains,” paleontologist Dr Matt White and his colleagues at the University of New England said in the Gondwana Research journal.
In pictures - dinosaur discoveries through the years
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Museum curator Wang Zhenghua, left, and Wang Fangchen, a scientist from Beijing, remove a fossilised dinosaur egg from a mountainside in Yunxian, China, where a huge deposit of dinosaur eggs was discovered last week. AFP -
A rare nest of ten dinosaur eggs, laid between 70 million to 100 million years ago, was sold at Bonham's in 1993 for $71,300. EPA -
Palaeontologist Alberto Santana of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro inspects the 110-million-year-old fossil remains of a Santanaraptor dinosaur in Rio de Janeiro in July 2000. AFP -
Scientist Jamie Powel shows the fossilised skull and jaw of a crocodile-like dinosaur dug up in Argentina's Tucuman province. Scientists said the reptile lived about 50 million years ago. Reuters -
Swiss palaeontologist Cristian Maier points to a 68-million-year-old dinosaur footprint in August 1998, near Sucre, Bolivia. AFP -
A nearly complete Oviraptorid dinosaur embryo, bottom, the outer surface of its egg, left, and the fragments of a dinosaur skull, possibly belonging to a Velociraptor, were all discovered in a nest in Mongolia in November 1994. EPA -
The fossilised skull of a Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur at Sotheby's auction house in New York in October 1997. AFP -
From left, Dr Stephen Godfrey, resident palaeontoligist with the Dinosaur World Tour, Dr Anne Warren from Melbourne Museum and Dr Alex Ritchie from the Australian Museum examine a fossil. Reuters -
The wing of Alcmonavis poeschli, as it was found in a limestone slab in Bavaria, Germany. AFP -
An expert works on the fossilised bones of a dinosaur in Maringa, Brazil, in January 2019. AFP -
The fossilised bones of a theropod dinosaur, Gigantoraptor erlianensis, on display in Beijing in June 2007. AFP -
Scientists Martin Sander, left, and Benjamin Englich examine the footprint of a long-necked dinosaur at an open-air museum in Germany in March 2012. EPA -
Bolivian farmer Primo Rivera stands in an area called Tunasniyoj, which means 'the place of the prickly pear cactus', where he discovered dinosaur footprints in November 2008. Reuters -
Scientific researcher Sanaa El-Sayed works on the 80-million-year-old remains of a plant-eating dinosaur from the Cretaceous period, in Cairo, Egypt, in February 2018. EPA -
Fabien Knoll, an honorary senior research fellow at the University of Manchester, lies next to footprints belonging to the Kayentapus ambrokholohali dinosaur in Lesotho in October 2017. AFP
