60-Million-Year-Old Crocodile Ancestor Was Snake Food
A 60-million-year-old relative of crocodiles named Cerrejonisuchus improcerus ("small crocodile from Cerrejon") was likely a food source for Titanoboa, the largest snake the world has ever known, says a new study published this week in the Journal Vertebrate Paleontology. Researchers from Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and paleontologists from the Florida Museum of Natural History found fossils of the new species of ancient crocodile in the Cerrejon Formation in northern Colombia. The site, one of the world's largest open-pit coal mines, also yielded skeletons of the giant, boa constrictor-like Titanoboa, which measured up to 45 feet long. The study is the first report of a fossil crocodyliform from the same site. read more