Scientists have discovered an absolutely massive 30-foot long prehistoric crocodile that was so badass it may have survived a ‘mass extinction event’.
The remains of the mega-croc were found in Tunisia and the beast’s believed to have been the largest sea-dwelling crocodile ever.
It’s thought to have been more than 30 feet long and weighed three tonnes, The Washington Post report.
The monstrous reptile’s skull alone is more than five feet long. Researchers have given the creature a suitably bad ass name, ‘the Machimosaurus rex’ or M.Rex.
Federico Fanti, who led the team that found M.Rex, described the crocodile as ‘massive’.
He said:
It’s just big. It’s almost the size of a bus… It definitely was at the top of the food chain at the time, at least in this particular locality.
Fanti and his team, supported by National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration, found the fossils buried below only a few inches of dirt on the edge of the Sahara Desert.
Fanti explained:
This one was a big surprise, not because we found fossils, but we found beautiful ones…The skull took two days to uncover, and the “rest of the body was just lying there.”
It’s believed that their dig site used to be a lagoon that faced the ocean and researchers also found the remains of fish and turtles that they still need to identify.
Scarily the M.Rex wasn’t just huge, it was also ‘absolutely capable’ of hunting in the water and was either an ambush predator or a scavenger.
Fanti explained that by comparing M. rex to other crocodiles that also have big heads and short teeth they believe that it had ‘a very incredibly powerful bite force’ that would help it crush its food and suggests that it ate sea turtles.
Aside from its sheer bulk the discovery of M.Rex is important for another reason. Fanti claims that the excavation undermines previous theories that there was a mass extinction event between the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods as the specimen they discovered lived way after this ‘hypothesized mass extinction.’
Fanti said:
That’s leading us to consider the mass extinction theory is wrong and that we should better understand what’s going on at the end of the Jurassic period.
Normally we’re totally against the extinction of animals but it’s a bit of a relief to know that this monster isn’t knocking about anymore… hopefully.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.