A view of the Dinosaurs of Patagonia’ exhibition in Madrid in 2024. The exhibition was developed by the Egidio Feruglio Paleontological Museum of Argentina, which reviews the evolution of the different types of dinosaurs that inhabited Patagonia more than 200 million years ago. File photo by Lucia Goni/EPA
Aug. 29 (UPI) — An interdisciplinary team of specialists from Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council, or CONICET, discovered most of the skeleton — including the skull and jaws — of a large hypercarnivorous crocodile that lived in southern Argentina about 70 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period.
Hypercarnivorous animals are those whose diet consists of more than 70% meat, and that include eagles, vultures, toothed whales, spiders and scorpions.
The discovery site, described Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS One, is situated about 19 miles south of the town of El Calafate in Patagonia.
Researchers named the new species Kostensuchus atrox, combining “Kosten” — the Aonikenk/Tehuelche word for Patagonian wind — and “suchus” — from the Greek Souchos, the crocodile-headed Egyptian god.
“This new species is distinguished from all previously known species by traits such as the large size of its teeth and skull, the robustness of its jaw and the large cavities that housed the muscles responsible for its bite. These traits lead us to interpret it as a top predator in the ecosystem,” said Diego Pol, a CONICET researcher at the Bernardino Rivadavia Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences.
The animal was not a dinosaur, though it was a predator. It belongs to an extinct family of crocodiles known as peirosaurs, which evolved in South America and Africa during the Cretaceous Period.
Kostensuchus lived in humid, lush environments. It had a robust body and short legs positioned vertically beneath its torso, which made it more agile than modern caimans and crocodiles.
Its head measured about 20 inches — large for its overall size, earning it the nickname the “bulldog” of crocodiles — and its snout carried more than 50 teeth, some longer than 2 inches, with serrated edges for cutting flesh. Its jaws, powered by strong muscles, delivered a quick and extremely powerful bite.
“Another predator we discovered in these rocks is the dinosaur Maip macrothorax – a carnivorous predator that was among the last dinosaurs before extinction and a close relative of the Megaraptor from Neuquén. It is very likely that Kostensuchus and Maip competed for food, similar to the clashes that occur today in Africa between hyenas and lions,” said paleontologist Fernando Novas, a CONICET researcher at the Félix de Azara Natural History Foundation and lead author of the study.
The study expands the known diversity of vertebrates in Patagonia and marks the southernmost record of peirosaurids. It also reinforces evidence that, toward the end of the Cretaceous, a lineage of large, robust animals lived in both South America and Madagascar.
The project involved researchers from Argentina, Brazil and Japan, with support from National Geographic and Brazilian science agencies — the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support in the State of Rio de Janeiro and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development.
CONICET said the discovery is a key piece in reconstructing the Patagonian ecosystem before the end of the dinosaur era.