A 95 million years old crocodile was just dug up in Australia - with a Dinosaur still in its belly
pictures_in_history "It would have looked something like Ducky from The Land Before Time. So you can imagine poor little Ducky crawling up onto the side of the bank and then a crocodile coming up and chomping it."
Paleontologists in Queensland, Australia just came upon a nearly 100 million-year-old dinosaur — in the belly of a crocodile. This beaked ornithopod served as the last meal for onfractosuchus sauroktonos, an all-new species of Cretaceous crocodile that paleontologists have affectionately named "broken dinosaur killer." What's more, researchers made this lucky discovery by accident while moving earth with a loader in search of sauropod fossils. The loader significantly damaged the crocodile fossil — but in the process revealed the tiny dinosaur's bones sticking out of the crocodile's belly.
See the photos and go inside the last moments of this ornithopod right out of "The Land Before Time" by clicking the link in our bio.
A 93-million-year-old crocodile has been uncovered by scientists with a baby dinosaur in its belly.
It has been dubbed the Confractosuchus Sauroktonos or "broken crocodile dinosaur killer" by experts and was found with the prehistoric baby in its stomach.
A report for Gondwana Research believes the huge croc grew to around 2.5m (6-8ft) and believe it died in a flood.
The reptile is said to have been 35% preserved with a "near-complete skull" and its fearful teeth.
Researchers examined it in more detail using 3D scans and X-rays
Joseph Bevitt, a co-author of the study, told Indy100: "In the initial scan in 2015, I spotted a buried bone in there that looked like a chicken bone with a hook on it and thought straight away that it was a dinosaur.
"The fossilised remains were found in a large boulder. Concretions often form when organic matter, or say a crocodile, sinks to the bottom of a river."
Scientists believe it was preserved because the mud surrounding the creature hardened because of the bacteria which were present.
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