Kittycroc

Galvasean

A very strange find from Tanzania. A dinosaur era crodile with mammal like features that was capable of chewing!

cat-size Pakasuchus kapilimai had relatively long legs and a nose similar to a dog's. Perhaps weirdest of all, Pakasuchus—literally, "cat crocodile"—had mammal-like teeth that gave the crocodile a power previously unknown among reptiles: the ability to chew.

As a result, the 105-million-year-old crocodile, researchers say, was something of a stand-in for mammals in the mammal-poor, long-gone southern supercontinent of Gondwana, which included the Pakasuchus fossil site in what's now Tanzania.

According to lead study author Patrick O'Connor, Pakasuchus's "legs were longer and more slender than what you think of for modern crocodiles ... and it had a little more of an upright stance," the Ohio University paleontologist said.

Living among dinosaurs, the fossil crocodile—technically a crocodyliform—was also lankier and had fewer of the bony plates that armor modern crocodiles.

And unlike in modern crocodiles—which have nostrils positioned on the tops of their heads, for breathing while swimming—the nose of Pakasuchus was located at the tip of its snout, canine style.

Read more here.
Video.



To read about other bizarre prehistoric croodiles click here.

Galvasean

There is a great photo of the (very well preserved) skull here:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/08/photogalleries/100804-crocodile-chew-fossil-science-mammal-teeth-pictures/#/mammal-like-crocodile-dentition-tooth-fossil_24170_600x450.jpg