Australia: Paleontologists discover crocodile fossil with remains of dinosaur in its gut

In a rare finding, paleontologists have confirmed the discovery of a specimen of a crocodile with the remains of an ornithopod dinosaur in its stomach. Led by the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum Research Associate Dr. Matt White, the excavation was carried out on Elderslie Station, near Winton in Australia's West Queensland. According to the discoverers, the crocodile fossil was preserved in a soft siltstone concretion and is the first evidence of dinosaur predation in Australia. 

'The dinosaur was an easy meal', experts say

The experts who carried out the excavation say that the ornithopod was only a juvenile weighing up to 1.7kg which made it an easy meal of the crocodile, which now belongs to the species Confractosuchus sauroktonos or the broken dinosaur killer. The dinosaur killer is estimated to be around 8.5 feet long at the time of its death and roamed the planet about 95 million years ago. This discovery is being considered extremely rare as only a handful of examples of dinosaur predation are known globally and findings of in the gut contents of a Cretaceous-aged crocodile is one of them. 

As shown in the image above, the near-complete skull of the crocodile is part of the discovered skeleton although the tails and limbs of the creature are missing. The experts noted that the crocodile's tooth mark was left on the surface of the dinosaur's femur bone as it was bitten extremely hard whereas the other femur was found severed in half. It is worth noting that the C. sauroktonos' bones were first discovered in 2010 but the findings are now being published after analysis and confirmation. 

Talking about the discovery, Dr. White said as per Daily Mail, "given the lack of comparable global specimens, this prehistoric crocodile and its last meal will continue to provide clues to the relationships and behaviours of animals that inhabited Australia millions of years ago". Moreover, he said that their discovery shows that the dinosaurs had an important position in the Cretaceous ecological food web.