Buried Just Inches Beneath Tunisia’s Sahara Sands, a Fully Intact 10-Meter-Long Sea Crocodile Fossil Has Been Found
The Daily Galaxy • • science
Key Points:
- A giant marine crocodile species, Machimosaurus rex, over 30 feet long and weighing about three tons, has been discovered in Tunisia, revealing a nearly complete and well-preserved skeleton.
- The fossil, uncovered near the Sahara Desert, features a skull larger than that of a T. rex and indicates a predator with a crushing bite adapted to prey on turtles and fish in a lagoon-connected marine environment.
- This species lived around 130 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, challenging previous beliefs that its group of marine crocodiles went extinct 150 million years ago at the end of the Jurassic period.
- The discovery suggests that some marine crocodile species survived beyond the previously assumed extinction event, prompting scientists to reconsider the timeline and nature of that mass extinction.
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