It could have been Godzilla vs. King Kong …
From “Ancient Crocodile Competed With Titanoboa, World’s Largest Snake, for Food, Paleontologists Discover” (ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2011), we learn:
In a new study appearing Sept. 15 in the journal Palaeontology, University of Florida researchers describe a new 20-foot extinct species discovered in the same Colombian coal mine with Titanoboa, the world’s largest snake.
Researchers think that the 14 metre titanoboa and the 7 metre croc both lived in and around fresh water and ate fish. When the snake was not eating younger crocs. We can assume it was not chummy with the older ones.
Challenges theories?
The new species is a dyrosaurid, commonly believed to be primarily ocean-dwelling, coastal reptiles. The new adult specimens challenge previous theories the animals only would have entered freshwater environments as babies before returning to sea.
“The general common wisdom was that ancestrally all crocodyliforms looked like a modern alligator, that all of these strange forms descended from a more generalized ancestor, but these guys are showing that sometimes one kind of specialized animal evolved from a very different specialized animal, not a generalized one,” Brochu said. “It’s really showing us a level of complexity to the history that 10 years ago was not anticipated.”
Yes it was. But you weren’t listening.
UD News: It’ll get worse. It already is. But also more fun.