DMITRI BOGDANOVTyrannoneustes lythrodectikos resembles the marine crocodiles of the genus Geosaurus (illustration)DMITRI BOGDANOV
The body shape looked something like that of a shark, but the jaw left no doubt: the predator, a crocodile, was able to devour prey of considerable size. From an incomplete fossil found in England, British and American paleontologists and Brazilian paleontologist Marco Brandalise, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), described a new genus and species of extinct marine crocodile. Tyrannoneustes lythrodectikos, the scientific name given to the animal which means “blood-biting tyrant swimmer,” lived 165 million years ago (Journal of Systematic Paleontology, January 2013). “It must have been the fiercest marine crocodile in its environment,” says Brandalise, who participated in the analysis of the fossil teeth. The newly discovered specimen measured more than three meters in length and had robust teeth that were good (but not ideal) for cutting, tearing and crushing its prey. It could swallow smaller fish and mollusks and tear marine reptiles and even sharks into small pieces. According to Brandalise, it is impossible to do an exact reconstruction of the new species of crocodile as it existed then because the recovered fossil material was limited to a large jaw, a part of the post-cranial skeleton and some sharp, serrated teeth. However, researchers believe that it was quite similar to crocodiles of the extinct genus Geosaurus, which also lived in Europe and arrived about 5 to 10 million years after Tyrannoneustes.
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