Prehistoric fossil in Peru sheds light on marine origin of crocodiles

LIMA, Could 17 (Reuters) – The invention of a prehistoric crocodile fossil in Peru from round 7 million years in the past has given paleontologists extra clues as to how fashionable crocodiles, all freshwater creatures within the Andean nation, first got here to land from the ocean.

In accordance with a Peruvian analysis staff that analyzed jaw and cranium stays of the species, the animal probably would have in all probability crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of South America, finally populating what’s now southern Peru.

Researcher Rodolfo Salas mentioned his staff had collected partial skeletons from the species in recent times, and that after discovering a jawbone in Peru’s Sacaco desert in 2020, they understood how these animals developed after residing in saltwater.

“The brand new species of crocodile that we’re presenting to the world lived in Sacaco 7 million years in the past,” Salas mentioned of the species, which he dubbed Sacacosuchus cordovai. The crocodilian ancestor would have been 4 meters (13 toes) lengthy, he added.

Sacaco is a website the place skeletons of prehistoric animals have been discovered earlier than. Consultants say that tens of millions of years in the past the desert was a deep seabed inhabited by whales, big sharks and crocodiles, amongst different marine species.

“We’ve got concluded … that each one marine crocodiles had been animals with lengthy and skinny faces, and that there have been two morphotypes,” Salas mentioned. “One which fed virtually solely on fish and one other that had a way more normal food plan.”

The research had been revealed final week in British scientific journal The Royal Society.

Southern Peru is a wealthy supply of prehistoric stays.

In March, a staff of paleontologists led by Salas introduced the cranium fossil of a 12-meter-long (39-foot-long) “sea monster,” a predator that lived 36 million years in the past in an historical ocean alongside the central coast of Peru. learn extra

Reporting by Carlos Valdez of Reuters TV; writing by Marco Aquino and Kylie Madry; enhancing by Jonathan Oatis

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