A crocodile that ate dinosaurs?

Have you heard of a crocodile that preyed on dinosaurs? I don’t think I had, until I saw a cast of a fossil* at the Oakland Zoo.Β Called the SuperCroc...
SuperCroc or the Sarcosuchus imperator

Have you heard of a crocodile that preyed on dinosaurs? I don’t think I had, until I saw a cast of a fossil* at the Oakland Zoo.Β Called the SuperCroc — what else could you possibly call a crocodile that could eat a dinosaur — this prehistoric member of the crocodile family was about 42 feet long. Studies say that this creature lived in Africa 110 million years ago. The zoological name of the SuperCroc is Sarcosuchus imperator. This is a must-see.

SuperCroc or the Sarcosuchus imperator, Oakland.

 

SuperCroc

Some facts that I found:
Fact sheet: All about SuperCrocs
Wikipedia: Sarcosuchus

*The fossil is said to have been found in the Sahara and unearthed by paleontologist Paul Sereno.

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Dee (Divya): Blogger, Freelance Content Writer & Content Strategist. | πŸ“Έ Loves tripping.πŸ›£ Tipsy from every TRIP!😬🫣 | 🏞Follow > for intoxicating virtual trips!πŸ₯‚πŸ˜‰
35 Comments on this post.
  • Rupertt Wind
    26 January 2012 at 5:58 am
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    WOW! Nows thats one big croc!

    • dNambiar
      26 January 2012 at 7:10 am
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      Oh yes it is. It filled me with awe, just as the skeleton of a Blue Whale I once got to see. I should put that picture up too.

  • magiceye
    8 May 2012 at 1:30 am
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    That is one huge croc!!

    • dNambiar
      8 May 2012 at 1:41 am
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      Hmm…I'm sure glad I wasn't around when the SuperCroc was. πŸ˜€

  • umashankar
    8 May 2012 at 1:51 am
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    Beautiful exposure, lovely colours, one Dinosaur of a crocodile indeed!

    • dNambiar
      9 May 2012 at 12:29 am
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      Thank you so much, USP. Exposure – that's something I need to learn more about.
      Yes. Dinosaur of a croc. Huge and thankfully extinct.

  • jaish_vats
    8 May 2012 at 2:23 am
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    Wow!!!! Menacing!

    • dNambiar
      9 May 2012 at 12:31 am
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      Imagine what it would be like if it still walked the earth! Thank you for coming by, Jayashree. πŸ™‚

  • Ruchita
    8 May 2012 at 8:54 am
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    Awesome!!!

    • dNambiar
      9 May 2012 at 12:32 am
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      Isn't it! I'm glad I got to see this fossil. It feels great to share these images too.

  • Santa
    8 May 2012 at 1:11 pm
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    this was a revelation…. nice pics as well….

    • dNambiar
      9 May 2012 at 12:33 am
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      Thank you Santhosh. πŸ™‚
      Your supermoon picture took my breath away. Too good.

  • debajyoti
    8 May 2012 at 4:57 pm
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    42 feet long!!! Goodness gracious me!! Even I am glad that I wasn’t there 110 million years ago or may be I was; may be I was that crocodile.

    My kittens saw this photograph and got scared πŸ™

    • dNambiar
      9 May 2012 at 12:42 am
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      Hmm… the fossil itself was humongous. I wonder what it must have been like with all its flesh and all. Scary! You just had to show these pictures to the poor kitties? Poor things, they must've had nightmares. I hope those links at the end were useful. That's for curious people like you πŸ™‚

      You never know, you just might have been a crocodile, a SuperCroc to be precise. :D.
      Hey Deb, nice to know you have pet kittens. πŸ™‚

  • Rajesh
    9 May 2012 at 5:31 am
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    This is amazing.

    • dNambiar
      10 May 2012 at 11:12 pm
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      Isn't it? πŸ™‚

  • Arti
    9 May 2012 at 11:31 am
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    Now that is something, really incredible!!

    • dNambiar
      10 May 2012 at 11:13 pm
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      Incredible indeed. πŸ™‚ It was really huge.

  • Bhavana
    10 May 2012 at 2:52 am
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    So the croc still caught the foot of the dinosaur and snapped and then went for the neck or how did it manage to eat dinosaur? Did it eat baby dinos, did it still wait in swamps for the dinos to come for a drink of water…how?

    • dNambiar
      10 May 2012 at 11:20 pm
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      These are supposed to have been really big crocs. I believe it did wait for the dinosaurs to come by for some water. My reading tells me that like the rest of the family they probably waited patiently and when their prey came by they might have charged out of water and attacked 'neck first'.

      I wonder what preyed on the SuperCrocs!

  • Abhinav
    11 May 2012 at 4:12 am
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    Really amazing !!! Its opened mouth frightens ! I wonder how they ate up the huge dinos… And I think, from somewhere I have heard that crocodiles themselves are a distant family member of dinosaurs ?!

    • dNambiar
      11 May 2012 at 11:09 pm
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      Yeah Abhinav, the mouth is really terrifying, indeed. They are supposed to have had over a hundred of those enormous teeth. I just learnt that there were crocs smaller than the Supercroc, that also feasted on smaller dinosaurs that were just as big as them or smaller.
      They might have been related. I wish somebody who knows would leave a comment for us; I know these pictures keep coming up on searches like crazy. Let's hope somebody with authority tells us a little more.

  • Nitin Jain
    11 May 2012 at 9:19 am
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    thank goodness I was not alive then πŸ˜€ !

    • dNambiar
      11 May 2012 at 11:10 pm
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      Me too. Nitin. πŸ™‚
      Visit again, ok. πŸ™‚

  • Dee
    12 May 2012 at 10:32 am
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    Thats very tiny πŸ˜›
    hehe
    informative πŸ™‚

    • dNambiar
      14 May 2012 at 11:48 pm
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      Yeah, yeah … I'm sure you find bigger ones in Tanjavur. ;).
      Welcome back, Deepak.

  • A Homemaker’s Utopia
    18 May 2012 at 3:11 pm
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    Amazing !!!Thanks for sharing..:-)

    • dNambiar
      24 May 2012 at 6:52 pm
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      πŸ™‚
      You're welcome, Nagini.

  • Sugato Tripathy
    1 July 2012 at 6:06 pm
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    incredible croc…nice snap/../

    • dNambiar
      3 July 2012 at 4:20 am
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      Incredible, it is. Thank you Sugato. πŸ™‚

  • Anonymous
    12 October 2012 at 2:29 am
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    wow, that would have been one incredible dominant beast on the top of the food chain. Its a shame that beasts like this no longer exist at this size, but at the same time I'm glad they don't haha

    • dNambiar
      31 October 2013 at 9:51 pm
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      Exactly, we'd have a lot to fear if this creature still existed. πŸ™‚

      Thank you for the visit. πŸ™‚

  • DeViL on WheeLs…
    31 October 2013 at 1:52 am
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    Looks fascinating. Never heard or knew such a thing !! Thanks for the share though might have been interesting to see such a thing as in living world πŸ˜‰

    • dNambiar
      31 October 2013 at 9:54 pm
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      I didn't know about it until I saw this fossil a few years ago. It was great getting to know about it. You won't believe the amount of searches that are being made for the supercroc. It has been my top post for a really long time. Most of the views come from the searches for it. πŸ™‚

      Thank you for coming by, Dheeraj.

  • 100 and counting |
    5 December 2016 at 11:38 pm
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    […] A crocodile that ate dinosaurs? […]

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