Ancient crocodile found in Peru sheds new light on their origin

Bob Yirka is a writer for Phys.org.

A group of researchers from the U.S. and France have discovered a prehistoric crocodile fossil. The group describes their find, what they have learned about it and what it shows about the evolution of marine crocodiles in a paper published in the Royal Society B.

There are two species of crocodiles that live in the ocean, but they are mostly freshwater dwelling creatures. This feature makes it difficult to understand the evolution of the creatures from crocs that mostly lived in the sea in the past. crocodiles have been living in southeastern parts of the Pacific Ocean for approximately 14 million years, according to prior research. The researchers have been looking for evidence of early crocodiles in western parts of South America. The partial remains of an ancient crocodile have been found.

The crocodile fossil was found in the East Pisco Basin in the Sacaco desert in the year 2020. Since that time, the researchers have been studying its attributes and have been looking for its place in the evolutionary history of crocodiles. The fossil is 7 million years old. It would have been approximately four meters long when it was alive.

Fossil discoveries show that the entire area was under the sea millions of years ago. The crocodile fossil found in the area suggests it was a saltwater creature, a finding that helps trace the evolution of crocodiles in South America.

The researchers think crocodiles made their way to South America by crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Some may have followed the coastline to arrive at what is now Peru. They suggest that there were two main types of marine crocodiles, one that lived mostly on fish and the other that had a more varied diet.

More information: Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi et al, Miocene fossils from the southeastern Pacific shed light on the last radiation of marine crocodylians, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0380 Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

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