Before Dinosaurs, There Was a Deadly Crocodile, Say Researchers

Researchers have found a new species of crocodile which according to researchers is the oldest and largest crocodile ever known.

Describing the species, researchers wrote that back before dinosaurs were the big bads of our continent, Carnufex carolinensis ruled the scene. At nine feet long and walking on its hind legs, this croc would have been a fierce predator 230 million years ago, researchers added.

The fossil of the deadly corcodile was discovered a decade ago but its bones have been sitting in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences ever since, The Washington Post noted.

"When we got the bones out and prepared them, we found out that it was actually a really cool species," said Lindsay Zanno, assistant professor at North Carolina State University and lead author of the new research paper. "It was one of the oldest and largest members of crocodylomorph -- the same group that crocodiles belong to -- that we've ever seen. And that size was really surprising."

"It was clearly a top predator," Zanno said. "That's a niche we didn't know animals like this were filling."

"We knew that there were too many top performers on the proverbial stage in the Late Triassic Period... Yet, until we deciphered the story behind Carnufex, it wasn't clear that early crocodile ancestors were among those vying for top predator roles prior to the reign of dinosaurs in North America."

The paper describing the fierce crocodile was published in the journal Scientific Reports.