Paleontologists have recently discovered a 7 million-year-old prehistoric crocodile fossil in Peru. This discovery has given the team of Peruvian researchers more information about freshwater creatures.
Southern Peru is abundantly blessed with prehistoric archaeological remains. Paleontologists have recently discovered a 7 million-year-old prehistoric crocodile fossil in Peru. This discovery has given the team of Peruvian researchers more information about freshwater creatures and the present form of crocodiles has evolved from the prehistoric ones, thus hinting at their migration from the water bodies to the land.
Analysis of some body fragments such as the skull and the jaw from the discovered fossil has provided the team of researchers with vital information, including its migration from the Atlantic Ocean to the coastlines of South America and then populated the area in due course of time of Southern Peru.
Researchers Rodolfo Salas commented on the findings of partial skeletons by his research team in recent times and how it has helped in understanding the evolution of such animals after habituating in saltwater, which was aided by the recent finding of a fossilized jaw in Peru’s Sacaco desert in 2020.
“The new species of crocodile that we are presenting to the world lived in Sacaco 7 million years ago,” Salas commented, which he dubbed Sacacosuchus cordovai. According to Salas, the crocodilian ancestor is estimated to be 4 meters (13 feet) long
Sacaco is a popular paleontological site with tons of prehistoric findings still embedded, and some have been discovered before. The researchers and experts say that Sacaco was once a vast ocean bed with a plethora of creatures residing such as crocodiles, giant whales, giant sharks, and other marine animals.
“We have concluded … that all marine crocodiles were animals with long and thin faces, and that there were two morphotypes,” Salas said. “One that fed almost exclusively on fish and another that had a much more general diet.”
In the month of March, Researcher Rodolfo Salas had headed and led a team of researchers to present a 12-meter-long (39-foot-long) fossilized skull of a “Sea-monster”, an avid predator that existed 36 million years ago in a prehistoric ocean near the central coast of Peru.
The detailed studies and documentation were published last week in a British scientific journal Of The Royal Society.
