SuperCroc, or Sarchosuchus (that's such a fun word to say) was discovered in 2000 in the Sahara Desert in Niger. Only about 50% of the original skeleton was found but by studying living crocodiles scientists were able to recreate the total skeleton. Super Croc was 40 feet long, as long as a school bus! That's twice as long as the largest living crocodile on record. The skull itself was 6' long! Amazing!
Yahoo wouldn't even be an appetizer for this dude. In fact scientists believe that this prehistoric crocodile would wait submerged at the waters edge and catch dinosaurs coming to drink. Then eat em'! A crocodile that ate dinosaurs. Yip and Yap were amazed by that little tidbit of information...and so was I.
I love this photo of the scientists who made the discovery lying down in the desert behind the skull to recreate the length, or what they guessed, the croc would have been.
That is one mighty long, strong tail and just check out the size of those teeth.
Of course there is more to the exhibit than just the giant skeleton. There's models of what scientists believe SuperCroc's eggs and babies would have looked like. There are side by side comparisons of SuperCroc's bones to modern crocodile and alligator bones. There is a National Geographic video documenting some of the work scientists did on SuperCroc. There is audio of modern reptiles sounds and those of what scientists believe SuperCroc would have sounded like. Though it's small, all around it is an absolutely amazing exhibit for such a small town of 900 people to have the chance to host. If you are in the area it would be well worth your time to detour to check it out. The exhibit will be up til March and I have a feeling the boys and I will be checking it out often...we've already been there 3 times!
Yep, we are pretty blessed to have such an amazing museum for our neighbor.
Posts
