If you want to know one of the most terrifying animals that existed in the world we inhabit today, this article is made for you. In it, you can discover the machimosaurus that was one of the ancestors of the crocodile that we know today and that he was a giant and brutal predator from another era.
It lived between the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous periods, this beast reached nine meters in length. Being twice as big as the largest crocodile we can find today . Few prisoners could escape or defend themselves from their large jaws. In these lines we will discover all the curiosities of this terrible dinosaur, surely they will impact you.
Machimosaurus | 8 curiosities of the most terrifying crocodile dinosaur
1. Curious name
As in some extinct species, the name of the machimosaurus is very peculiar and sure will have caught your attention. Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer He was the one who named them at the beginning of the 19th century, but he did it wrongly because he named them Madrimosaurus.
2. Fossil teeth
Most of the information that is known about this gigantic animal comes from the findings of fossil teeth that have been discovered since the time of von Meyer. Thanks to them, they have been able to specify their prey, the size they could reach and even the habitat they used to have .
3. Huge skull
In addition to its large size, it also had a gigantic head. The fossils found from the skull of the machimosaurus measured up to more than one and a half meters. With such a head, it is not hard to imagine that the morsels that this beast could utter were totally uncommon .
4. Various species
Of this extinct animal, up to three known species have been classified thanks to fossils found in different parts of the world. These breeds differed in their size, they are known as machimosaurus hugii (the largest), machimosaurus mosae and machimosaurus buffetauti ordered by size. In addition to these, there is another called nowackianus but its measurements could not be established since only a fragmented skull has been found. But of all of them, The largest one that has been found has been in Tangier and because it was almost 10 meters tall it was named as a rex .
5. Dams
After analyzing remains of this extinct animal, such as teeth and its wear, it has been concluded that the prey of the machimosaurus were huge turtles and other large marine creatures . In addition to all that terrestrial animal that was too close to their domains, something that the current crocodile usually does and that costs the lives of several human beings throughout the year.
6. Habitat
According to most experts, these giant animals lived in the open seas, a fact that was known due to the analysis of the vertebrae of this huge crocodile. Due to the enormous skull that it had and we have already commented before, the machimosaurus could be submerged many meters under the sea. The latest explorations in Africa indicate that this great species of ancient crocodile lived in what are now deserts .
7. Great survivors
In the massive extinctions and the great disappearances that there were millions of years ago on planet Earth, there were some survivors. It is believed that the machimosaurus could be one of them, due to its large size and that it lived in the oceans. This speaks of its great ability to adapt and survive changes , not in vain the crocodile of our times is one of the longest living species on our planet.
8. Deadly weapons
One of its most lethal weapons was its teeth, which were tremendously hard, since incisions have been found in the shells of the ancestors of giant tortoises. Despite their tremendous hardness, these teeth were not long but had a rather shortened and rounded shape. Imagine the fearsome strength of the long jaw of this animal , added to the terrible teeth that we have described.
As you can see, this dinosaur species was really scary because it had the most fearsome of a current crocodile added to its enormous size. For these reasons, they were practically the most important predators of the oceans at the time they existed.
Now we would like to know your opinion about the machimosaurus, to see if the figure of this extinct animal has impressed you as much as it has impressed us. Can you imagine what it would be like to swim in the same waters as this tremendous predator? Did you know that an ancestor of the crocodile of such size had come to exist? What do you think about the hardness of their teeth, which could pierce the shells of giant tortoises? Your comments are very important to us, as they help us to improve continuously. So you know, do not hesitate to write us and translate your opinions because we will be happy to read them and answer them all. Cheer up!