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Curator of the Headphone Lust Museum
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A new species of crocodile which lived 40 million years ago has been discovered in tropical Australia, filling a gap in the evolution of the prehistoric-looking crocodile, researchers said on Thursday.
"There is a big gap from about 30 to 60 million years ago of which we have no clue, except for these guys," Buchanan told Reuters on Thursday.
"This croc would have looked much like a modern freshwater crocodile, which is the beautiful thing about crocodiles. They found something that works and stuck with it all through history," he said.
However, the ancient crocodile had sharper and laterally compressed teeth enabling it to sheer prey and an extra jaw muscle to give a stronger, more powerful bite.
Read the whole thing here and check out the photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...a_crocodile_dc
"There is a big gap from about 30 to 60 million years ago of which we have no clue, except for these guys," Buchanan told Reuters on Thursday.
"This croc would have looked much like a modern freshwater crocodile, which is the beautiful thing about crocodiles. They found something that works and stuck with it all through history," he said.
However, the ancient crocodile had sharper and laterally compressed teeth enabling it to sheer prey and an extra jaw muscle to give a stronger, more powerful bite.
Read the whole thing here and check out the photos:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...a_crocodile_dc