An ancient ‘terror crocodile’ became a dinosaur-eating giant. Scientists say they now know why

This ancient croc was bigger than most dinosaurs

The prehistoric crocodile relative may have tolerated both freshwater and saltwater habitats, allowing it to conquer North American coasts in the Cretaceous.

Expanded phylogeny elucidates Deinosuchus relationships, crocodylian osmoregulation and body-size evolution

Transmarine distribution and gigantism in the Late Cretaceous North American crocodyliform Deinosuchus has been difficult to reconcile with consistently inferred phylogenetic relationships to alligatorids, an otherwise freshwater and smaller-bodied group. We present an expanded phylogeny with increased spatiotemporally coherence that reinterprets species of Deinosuchus as stem-group crocodylians together with further putative alligatoroids, Leid…

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN A huge extinct reptile that once fed on dinosaurs had a wide snout like that of a caiman, but it owed its success to a feature that modern alligators lack: salt water tolerance.Deinosuchus was one of the largest crocodiles that ever existed, with a body almost as long as a bus and banana-sized teeth.From about 82 million to 75 million years ago, this superpredator was swimming in rivers and estuaries in North America. Hi…

An ancient ‘terror crocodile’ became a dinosaur-eating giant. Scientists say they now know why

One of the largest crocodilians that ever lived preyed on dinosaurs. New research has found the fearsome Deinosuchus had a key trait that modern alligators lack.