New Species of Predator Crocodile Preceded the Dinosaurs

Scientists may have discovered a new species of predator crocodile that actually preceded the dinosaurs. They've uncovered a new species called Nundasuchus, a nine-foot-long carnivorous reptile with steak knifelike teeth.

The new species isn't a dinosaur itself. However, it is one of the largest reptiles that lived before dinosaurs rose to dominance. The researchers first discovered the partial skeleton of this creature in 2007. However, it took several years to piece the bones together, since they were in thousands of pieces.

Although a large number of skeleton bones were found, though, most of the skull was not recovered despite three trips to the site and more than 1,000 hours spent painstakingly piecing the bones back together and cleaning them.

"There's such a huge gap in our understanding around the time when the common ancestor of birds and crocodilians was alive-there isn't a lot out there in the fossil record from that part of the reptile family tree," said Sterling Nesbitt, one of the researchers, in a news release. He's been involved in naming 17 different reptiles, dinosaurs and dinosaur relatives in the last 10 years. "This helps us fill in some gaps in the reptile family tree, but we're still studying it and figuring out the implications."

Understanding this new species is crucial for better understanding the evolutionary history of dinosaurs and reptiles. Because this species existed before the rise of dinosaurs, scientists can better understand what Earth was like in the distant past.

The findings are published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

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