Crocodylus anthropophagus
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Crocodylus anthropophagus

Crocodylus anthropophagus is an extinct species of crocodile from the Pleistocene of Tanzania. It lived 1.84 million years ago. It was a large-sized predator reaching a length of 5 m (16 ft).

Animal name origin

Crocodylus anthropophagus was first named by Christopher A. Brochu, Jackson Njau, Robert J. Blumenschine and Llewellyn D. Densmore in 2010. The specific name anthropophagus is from Greek word "anthropos " that means "human" and Greek word "phagos " that means "eater", in reference to the evidence that this animal included hominids in its diet.

Appearance

The skeleton is consistent with living representatives of the genus. The axis vertebra has a projection on the underside (a hypapophysis) which seems to have largely fused to the vertebra itself. The vertebrae are procoelous in shape, with a spherical projection extending from the back side which attaches to a concave socket on the front end of the preceding vertebra. The femora slightly bend in an S-shape. However, C. anthropophagus lacks the shallow bony pair of crests running from the eyes to the nose like in Indopacific Crocodylus, and lacks a boss (a lump of bone) on the middle of the snout like in Neotropical Crocodylus.

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The right premaxilla (the bone that makes up the front end of the snout) of the holotype preserved three tooth sockets, with a notable gap in between the first and second sockets. Another specimen's left maxilla (the bone that makes up the back end of the snout) preserved 13 circular sockets, though it may have partially preserved a 14th. There was a gap between the 9th and 10th. The teeth were all conical and lacked serrations.

It had two prominent, triangular “horns” over the ears.

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Geography

References

1. Crocodylus anthropophagus Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodylus_anthropophagus

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