Largest Crocodile Ever Lived In Africa, Crocodylus Thorbjarnarsoni Fossils Suggest

By: OurAmazingPlanet Staff
Published: 05/07/2012 04:28 PM EDT on OurAmazingPlanet

Scientists have announced the discovery of a newfound crocodile species that may have been the largest to ever roam the Earth. The colossal reptiles trolled East African waters between 4 million and 2 million years ago, and may have snacked on human ancestors, researchers said.

The largest fossil specimens recovered belong to massive crocodiles some 25 feet (7.5 meters) in length; and the ancient giants may have grown larger than 27 feet (8 meters), according to Christopher Brochu, an associate professor of geosciences at the University of Iowa.

Brochu stumbled upon the new species three years ago, while examining enormous fossils housed at the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi. It took four men to lift the skull of one of the specimens, which were originally excavated from the Turkana Basin, an area surrounding Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.

The region is a famed hotspot for human fossil finds. Many early hominids have been unearthed from the Turkana Basin, and Brochu said it's possible some of them came to a nasty end, thanks to the prehistoric crocodiles, dubbed Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni.

"It lived alongside our ancestors, and it probably ate them." Brochu said in a statement, adding that the colossal reptiles may have swallowed them whole.

"We don’t actually have fossil human remains with croc bites, but the crocs were bigger than today's crocodiles, and we were smaller, so there probably wasn't much biting involved," he said.

Brochu's research is published in the May 3 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The newfound species isn't closely related to Nile crocodiles, Brochu said. "We really don't know where the Nile crocodile came from," he said, "but it only appears after some of these prehistoric giants died out."

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Also on HuffPost:

PHOTOS: GIANT PREHISTORIC ANIMALS, 'MEGAFAUNA'

Loading Slideshow

• Titanis walleri

  This North American bird, which stood over 8 feet tall, would have had an enormous, axe-like beak.

• Dunkleosteus terreli

  This heavily-armored predator had the second most powerful bite of any fish.

• Indricotherium

  The hornless rhinoceros-like creatures of this genus were the largest land mammals of all time.

• Megatherium

  Giant ground sloths of this genus were about the size of today's elephants. The megatherium only went extinct around 10,000 years ago (right around the time when humans started farming), and smaller relatives may have survived as late as the 16th century!

• Dinornis novaezealandiae

  Richard Owen, director of London's Museum of Natural History, stands next to the largest of all moa. Moa, which originated in New Zealand, were flightless, and some were even wingless.

• Argentavis magnificens

  The Argentavis magnificens, an early relative of the Andean Condor, was the largest flying bird ever discovered.

• Diprotodon optatum

  These creatures, the largest marsupials that ever lived, roamed Australia. Some scientists have suggested that stories of the supernatural 'bunyip' creature in Aboriginal folklore could be based on diprotodonts.

• Deinotherium giganteum

  These distant relatives of modern elephants had an imposing appearance, with strange, downward-curving tusks and heights of up to 16 feet at the shoulder.

• Leedsichthys problematicus & Liopleurodon rossicus

  The fearsome Liopleuredon, right, had a jaw nearly ten feet long. The Leedsichthys, left, was a bony fish that may have been even larger than it looked; some estimates put its maximum length at 53 feet. <strong>Correction</strong>: <em>An earlier version of this slide had the positions of the Liopleuredon and Leedsichthys reversed</em>.

Comments

[yukidongo1]

02:01 AM on 05/20/2012

Correction: An earlier version of this slide had the positions of the Liopleuredon and Leedsichthys reversed.

LOL... Any of us that have watched (repeatedly) Walking with Dinosaurs, and the subsequent water related ones, already knew which was which... Seriously! Still, I can envision two particular mentions of Liopleuredon... One shows him attacking a land predator from the water, and the other, out in the sea after a dolphin that just delivered a calf. Great pix.

[onehenry]

08:18 PM on 05/10/2012

I bet the guys on swamp people would be landlubbers if they had these crocs in the water.

[Papers Please]

11:29 PM on 05/09/2012

African dinosaurs are by no means extinct.

There's a whole family of them living in the Whitehouse.

[edtheengineer]

11:37 AM on 05/10/2012

And your buddies, the knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing neanderthals are the majority in the House.

[Fritzwood]

07:37 PM on 05/14/2012

I'd tell you what I really think of you but moderation would take it's toll......

[Papers Please]

07:53 PM on 05/14/2012

You need a good plastic surgeon and a few visits to Jenny Craig.

[Carmichael]

06:07 PM on 05/09/2012

Science is always going to be what it is...determination through studies, which is then left up to "believe it not."

[Llib Noswad]

05:12 PM on 05/09/2012

Now we know where all of the dinosaurs went.

[PineTar83]

05:08 PM on 05/09/2012

huffy stay away from scientific articles, you cant even get the pictures right

[babetkensington]

04:26 PM on 05/09/2012

I dont understand this size of crocodile still exist in Africa I ee them in Ivory Cost over 8 meter long

[adamofmichigan]

03:29 PM on 05/09/2012

Stumbled upon the fossils 3 years ago. Would have been an enhancement to the article if he'd taken a few photos to share.

[CHUXKLES]

04:35 PM on 05/09/2012

not too co-ordinated were he? stumbled.....

[csim414]

09:27 PM on 05/20/2012

Random selction by a fortudious occurence has become the 'god' of the darwinian believers. That type of thinking is unscientific, unhelathy for your mind and lacks original concepts.
.... every painting has an artist....every building has a builder...creation demands and has a Creator...think outside of the darwinian box..... in the beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth...add to that the entire universe, including man in God's image, with a purpose. He is not limited by time and space. He alone can take nothing and create something out of it... it's not that you can't believe this..it is that you do not want to believe for a myriad of reason the least of which is scientific. It's so easy to look at today's hucksters of science and agree with their vain imagination of origins. The bottom line to Random Selection....You get rid of the diety, you get rid of judgement day, you get rid of all accountability...that is the great by product of the 'darwinian god' you are born...you live.... you reproduce.... and then you die with no accountability...Jesus said I am the Ressurection and the life even if a man dies and believes in Me he will live again. ...always remember 'it is the fool that has said in his heart there is No God!'

[umass13]

03:18 PM on 05/09/2012

that is exciting news. now take that news and $4.25 and go to starbucks and that will buy you a caramel frappucino. the 4.25 not the news.
the news is a useless as tits on a bull

[Dainiz]

02:29 PM on 05/09/2012

The author can't be serious of the idea of the crocs existed 2-4 million years ago. Who did they eat, Adam and Eve? How Outlandish can we be told. Get real.

[psdiver41]

02:33 PM on 05/09/2012

And how old do you propose the earth is?

[CHUXKLES]

04:36 PM on 05/09/2012

Pretty sure at least 65~! THAT IS HOW OLD i AM!!

[omgomghaxx]

05:17 PM on 05/09/2012

i believe the earth is 4000 years old.. lmao, bible told me so..

nah, just kidding im an atheist. 4.7 billion years old is from what i have heard and what the evidence points to.

[psdiver41]

02:35 PM on 05/09/2012

Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, approximately 230 million years ago, and became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for 135 million years, from the beginning of the Jurassic (about 200 million years ago) .... From Wikipedia

[csim414]

04:43 PM on 05/09/2012

That comforts me that you quoted Wikipedia...then it must be true......... or editted.
Man's written recorded hisory of existance can date no further than 6-7,000 yrs.
230 million yrs??? not a chance!

[malam]

02:23 PM on 05/09/2012

So if you are swallowed whole...how long are you still alive inside the croc?

[Big Horn Man]

02:56 PM on 05/09/2012

They don't eat right away. They would take you underwear and leave you there until your meat become tender. Yummy.

[doomonyou]

04:40 PM on 05/09/2012

They take your underwear? Are these fashionista's or crocodiles?

[ivanivonovich]

08:33 PM on 05/09/2012

Some Crocs would, but others have been known to gulp down what food is available, and keep it in their gut. Depends on how recently they had eaten prior to having you for lunch.

[ivanivonovich]

08:31 PM on 05/09/2012

If swallowed whole, then only as long as it would take you to drown / suffocate.

[John Wampler]

02:07 PM on 05/09/2012

Close your eyes and imagine Unga-Unga, down by the water collecting some poke salad and WHAMP!!

[jrp1947]

02:00 PM on 05/09/2012

Sounds like a bigger supply of shoes and purses to me. Aligators are bad enough down south but Crocs are just ill tempered versions not much good for anything but Mother Nature's garbage detail and clean up. Unfortunately for the natives crocs tend to exceed their assignments and go after villagers as well. Do not blame the tribes for eliminating them when they can.

[edtheengineer]

06:48 PM on 05/09/2012

This guy would give you more than shoes and purses. He could provide several sets of matched luggage.

[ivanivonovich]

08:35 PM on 05/09/2012

How about a nice piece for the top of my car, instead of that cheap vinyl ?

[yukidongo1]

02:13 AM on 05/20/2012

What about the meat...? Man and almost year's supply of fried, dried, stewed, whatever....!

[Dan Covey]

01:59 PM on 05/09/2012

Great news, but I have seen larger ones in the earlier Tarzan movies !!!!! And he whips them all by himself !!!

[cqdeed]

01:43 PM on 05/09/2012

So large it took four men to lift the skull. Since it was a fossil how about saying it took four men to lift a rock the size and shape of the skull?

[ivanivonovich]

08:38 PM on 05/09/2012

Yes, that would be more of an accurate statement. But with some of the other errors in the article, you can see this author is not the brightest star in the night sky. Hilarious, it is that this person gets paid to write this.