 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Sarcosuchus imperator "SuperCroc"  From the blistering sands of the Sahara, University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno has pulled an incredible find: the nearly complete remains of Sarcosuchus imperator, one of the largest crocodilians to ever walk the Earth. As long as a city bus and weighing in at about 10 tons, "SuperCroc" lives up to its nickname. Sarcosuchus imperator, or "flesh crocodile emperor," lived roughly 110 million years ago when rivers coursed over what is now sub-Saharan Africa. Sarcosuchus prowled the rivers' banks, crushing fish — and other creatures — in its massive jaws. Sarcosuchus didn't walk with the dinosaurs; it ate them for dinner!With the cooperation of Sereno and his team at Project Exploration, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis acquired the first reproduction of SuperCroc for permanent display in the museum's Dinosphere entrance in 2002.  Bones and teeth of SuperCroc were first discovered by French paleontologists in the Sahara in the 1940s and 1950s. France de Broin and Philippe Taquet first gave Sarcosuchus imperator a name in 1966. Four decades later, in 2000, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sereno and his team of fossil hunters found Sarcosuchus remains so enormous they dubbed the creature SuperCroc.Sereno and his team, funded in part by the National Geographic Society, poured through the hot sands of a fossil graveyard called Gadoufaoua in Niger, unearthing scores of Sarcosuchus remains, including vertebrae, limb bones, armor plates, jaws, and a nearly complete 6-foot (1.8-meter) skull. From their find, Sereno believes SuperCroc weighed as much as 10 tons and measured as long as 40 feet.  Much about the giant croc remained a mystery, however, until Sereno's team began excavating at Gadoufaoua in 1997. "People hadn't gone back with any expedition capacity since then, so not much else was collected," said team member Hans Larsson. The 1997 dig had barely begun when the team discovered the fossilized jaws, each as long as some members of the team. The group had traveled to the site — one of the richest fossil beds in Africa — to search for dinosaurs. But it was immediately clear that the giant jawbones had not come from a dinosaur, Sereno said. "We had never seen anything like it," he said. "The snout and teeth were designed for grabbing prey — fish, turtles and dinosaurs that strayed too close." Other massive crocodiles have been reported, but Sarcosuchus imperator is the most complete specimen found so far and among the largest crocodilians that ever lived. During expeditions in 1997 and 2000, Sereno's team found skulls, vertebrae, limb bones and foot-long (30-centimeter) bony armor plates called scutes. From this trove of bones, the scientists were able to assemble about half of the giant croc's skeleton, providing a good picture of Sarcosuchus.SuperCroc lived in Africa when broad rivers stretched across lush plains. Sarcosuchus and modern crocodilians, which consist of about 23 species that include alligators, crocodiles, caimans, and gharials, share an early common ancestor. The narrow jaws of an adult Sarcosuchus housed more than 100 teeth. While the giant croc shared the water with large fish, its hearty teeth — which included bone-crushing incisors — suggest that Sarcosuchus may not have limited its diet to eating fish. Other prey may have been terrestrial animals, such as turtles, and small dinosaurs. Because the predator-prey relationship is an important part of revealing the life of dinosaurs, SuperCroc helps to paint a realistic picture of life at water's edge. SuperCroc Statistics
|
 |
|||||
|
|||||
3000 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46208-4716 · 317-334-3322 |
|||||
| Official Corporate Partners: | |||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
||||
