Terrifying prehistoric RUNNING CROCODILE could sprint on two legs to hunt dinosaurs for breakfast, footprints reveal
SCIENTISTS believe they have discovered an ancient form of crocodile that used to run on two legs after analysing fossilised footprints.
The findings from the tracks of almost one hundred footprints found in the Jinju Formation in South Korea have left researchers shocked.
Analysis has been underway on the set of 18 to 24cm-long indentations that were left behind between 110 and 120 million years ago.
The prehistoric footprints have been perfectly preserved after being made in what scientists believe was the muddy ground surrounding a lake.
The international team of researchers believe that their findings have altered what we know about crocodiles.
After thorough analysis, it is now thought by the team that ancient crocodiles could “run like an ostrich or a T. rex.”
Martin Lockley, a professor at the University of Colorado told the BBC: “People tend to think of crocodiles as animals that don’t do very much; that they just laze around all day on the banks of the Nile or next to rivers in Costa Rica.
“Nobody automatically thinks I wonder what this [creature] would be like if it was bipedal and could run like an ostrich or a T. rex.”
No physical remains of the creature that has been named Batrachopus grandis have yet been found so footprints are the only clues as to what they were like.
But crucially, these prints are similar to those of the Batrachopus crocodiles that lived during the Jurassic though these older creatures clearly walked on all fours and had smaller feet.
Professor Kyung Soo Kim from South Korea’s Chinju National University of Education who led the research team excitedly said: “We can see all the digits, all the ridges in the skin – just as if you were looking at your hands.
“They put one foot in front of another; they could pass a sobriety test walking in a straight line. And there are no front footprints.”
“Our trackways are very narrow-looking – more like a crocodile balancing on a tightrope.”
“When combined with the lack of any tail-drag marks, it became clear that these creatures were moving bipedally,” he continued.
“They were moving in the same way as many dinosaurs, but the footprints were not made by dinosaurs. Dinosaurs and their bird descendants walk on their toes.
“Crocodiles walk on the flat of their feet leaving clear heel impressions, like humans do.”
The indentations of the footprints in the rock clearly show four toes on each foot with scientists noting that the smaller toes are actually on the inside of the foot.
Batrachopus grandis weighed nearly 1,000 pounds or half a tonne and had razor-sharp teeth that it would use to eat anything it could catch including dinosaurs.
It measured around 13.1 feet in length with legs the same length as ours.
The footprints with skin impressions showed that they had crocodile-like scales and chunky toes that were not webbed, unlike modern-day crocodiles.
This latter feature and other elements of the prints have seen other academics argue against the theory that the tracks belong to a bipedal crocodile species, with many needing more evidence.
Phil Manning, a palaeontologist at the University of Manchester told the BBC: “Look at any videos of living crocs and the rotation of their feet when they’re galloping: it’s outwards, not inwards towards the midline of the trackway.”
He explained that to him the tracks appeared to be “dinosaurian but whether it’s a croc – unfortunately, we just don’t have the fossil bones to tell us.”
Michaela Johnson of the University of Edinburgh added: “Modern crocodiles have at least some webbing between toes in their back feet, whereas these tracks don’t appear to have any.”
But, she admitted that the latest research does prove that they were made by a crocodylomorph (the large ancestor of modern crocodiles.)
It was previously believed after finding them in 2012 that they were from a kind of flying dinosaur known as a pterosaur.
Professor Lockley said: “The discovery of these tracks solved the ‘whodunnit’ mystery.”
“Fossil crocodile tracks are quite rare in Asia, so finding an abundance of nearly one hundred footprints was extraordinary,” palaeontologist Dr Anthony Romilio from the University of Queensland added.
“These fossils are spectacular, they even have the fine details of the toe-pads and scales on their soles preserved.”