The analysis of what has been determined to be the oldest crocodile species found in Africa was reported at the Public Library of Science web site on January 31, 2012.
Aegisuchus witmeri (Shieldcroc) came from Morocco and had been stored in the Royal Ontario Museum of Toronto for several years before University of Missouri-Columbia analyzed the skull that remains and found the oldest crocodile from Africa.
The researchers named the reptile Shieldcroc based on an unusual bone structure on top of the skull that resembles a shield and may have served a protective function.
The 95 million year old reptile lived during the Late Cretaceous period. The beast was 30 feet long with a flat shaped five foot wide head and ate fish as the majority of its diet.
Casey Holliday, assistant professor of anatomy in the MU School of Medicine and Nick Gardner, an undergraduate researcher at Marshall University, are responsible for the research that was reviewed at the Eureka Alert web site on January 30, 2012.
The Shieldcroc fossil studied by Holliday and Gardner is being returned to the Royal Ontario Museum, where it will be put on display later this year.
Paper
Authors
Casey M. Holliday1*, Nicholas M. Gardner2
1 Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States of America, 2 Department of Biological Sciences, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, United States of America
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