A new study says that the giant alligator-like hypercarnivores likely hunted dinosaurs in what is now Argentina 70 million years ago.
Researchers discovered fossilized skeletons from extinct apex predators in southern Patagonia in 2020. It was about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) long and weighed about 550 pounds (250 kilograms).
The creature is named the atorox of Kostenskus, also known as the Patagonian winds known as “Kosten” and the god Sobek in the Egyptian crocodile. K. attorox means that over 70% of its meal is meat. K. Atrox’s anatomy is equipped with a wide nose, large teeth and robust forelimbs, and a new study published Wednesday (August 27) in the Journal PLOS One suggests that it can defeat large prey in the Cretaceous (145-66 million years ago) ecosystems in South America.
The findings underscore the fact that dinosaurs lived in a wide range of organisms, said Fernando Novas, the research lead author, Paleontologist at the National Council on Science and Technology Research (Conicet) and the Felix de Azara Foundation for Natural History.
“In particular, during the Cretaceous period in South America and Africa, terrestrial crocodiles were particularly diverse and abundant during the Cretaceous period, including large and small meat-eating and plant-eating forms, revealing that these continents were “Crocs’ lands.” “These extinct crocodiles competed with dinosaurs, fell prey, and played an important role in the structure of the ecosystem that disappeared.”
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K. Atrox was part of a group of reptiles called Peirosaurid Crocodyliforms, an extinct relative of living crocodiles. The newly discovered fossils were very well preserved, so K. Atrox is one of the best Peirosaurid Crocodyliform examples ever discovered, and research shows that it is the most completely large and widely set member on record.
Researchers discovered K. attrox in the Corillo rock formations in Patagonia. They also discovered a larger carnivorous dinosaur named Maip MacRothorax, which was announced in 2022.
K. Atrox was smaller than M. Macrothorax, but Novas said it could prey on small to medium-sized dinosaurs.
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