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Sarcosuchus (/ ˌsɑːrkoʊˈsuːkəs /; lit. 'flesh crocodile ') is an extinct genus of crocodyliform and distant relative of living crocodilians that lived during the Early Cretaceous, from the late Hauterivian to the early Albian, 133 to 112 million years ago of what is now Africa and South America.
- Bob Strauss
- Sarcosuchus Is Also Known as the SuperCroc. The name Sarcosuchus is Greek for "flesh crocodile," but that apparently wasn't impressive enough for the producers at National Geographic.
- Sarcosuchus Kept Growing Throughout Its Life Span. Unlike modern crocodiles, which attain their full adult size in about 10 years, Sarcosuchus seems to have kept growing and growing at a steady rate throughout its lifetime (paleontologists can determine this by examining bone cross-sections from various fossilized specimens).
- Sarcosuchus Adults May Have Weighed More Than 10 Tons. What made Sarcosuchus truly impressive was its dinosaur-worthy weight: more than 10 tons for those 40-foot-long senior citizens described in the previous slide, and perhaps seven or eight tons for the average adult.
- Sarcosuchus May Have Tangled With Spinosaurus. Although it's unlikely that Sarcosuchus deliberately hunted dinosaurs for lunch, there's no reason it had to tolerate other predators that competed with it for limited food resources.
Narrated by Sam Neill, National Geographic's SuperCroc is a crash course in all things crocodile. Although it's sure to appeal to those with an interest in prehistoric life, it's as much about...
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- Qemetiel 218
- Overview
- Crocodile Hunting
- Into the Wild
In a study based on measurements of the bite force of living crocodilians, researchers have concluded that the ancient Sarcosuchus imperator "SuperCroc" had jaws of steel that no prey not even small dinosaurs could pry open.
Chomp.
It weighed 17,500 pounds (7,938 kilograms), was 40 feet (12.2 meters) long, and probably ate dinosaurs for dinner.
Sarcosuchus imperator, an ancient relative of modern alligators and crocodiles that roamed the Sahara Desert 110 million years ago, had jaws of steel that no prey—not even small dinosaurs—could pry open, according to researchers. Being trapped in the jaws of this monster—dubbed "SuperCroc" by paleontologists—would be equivalent to being trapped under the weight of a Mack Truck, explained Greg Erickson, a biologist at Florida State University.
Erickson and his colleagues extrapolated the bite force of SuperCroc from data they collected by provoking living alligators and crocodiles at a zoological park in Florida to chomp on a "bite bar." Basically a rod encased in leather, the instrument measures bite force strength in much the same way a bathroom scale measures weight.
In April 2002, Erickson and his colleagues took to the unbound lakes and rivers of central Florida to see if wild alligators bite with more force than those kept in captivity.
The original research—which was filmed for a National Geographic Special on SuperCroc that aired in December 2001 on the National Geographic Channel, and which will be repeated at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET/PT, April 6, 2003 and 5 p.m. ET/PT April 12—was conducted at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park in Florida.
There, Erickson and his colleagues Kent Vliet, a zoologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and Kristopher Lappin, a biologist at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, wrestled more than 60 crocodilians to shore long enough to induce them to chomp viciously on the seven-foot-long (two-meter-long) bite bar.
The bar has four piezoelectric sensors, shaped like washers, that are sandwiched between two steel plates. "When the animal bites the plates and squeezes them together, we get a reading," said Lappin. "The four sensors are wired together so that a bite anywhere on the plates will give an accurate reading of the force."
The trick is to get the crocodiles or alligators to bite the bar.
To do so, the researchers sling a rope around the creature's neck and pull it ashore, where Vliet jumps on the animal's back.
"I have to get onto the animal's back before we place the bite bar to try to prevent the animal from rolling when it does bite and possibly breaking our equipment," he said. Each bite bar costs up to U.S. $10,000, depending on size.
Erickson and his colleagues are now preparing to take their research into the wild to see if they get different results.
An alligator bite provoked by the bite bar, they say, is sort of like the reflex that occurs when a doctor taps a patient's knee with a special hammer; the bite response is the same in gators regardless of location. But wild alligators might be in better shape and thus have stronger bites.
It was a colossal beast that dwarfed even the mightiest of dinosaurs, with a bite force that could crush bone and a body that could reach up to 12 metres (39 feet) in length. This creature was the Sarcosuchus, known colloquially as the SuperCroc.
This channel makes educational videos on paleontology, with a focus on Pseudosuchia (the group of reptiles crocodilians are a part of) and reptiles from the Triassic Period, the first (and easily...
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- CHimerasuchus
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Nicknamed the SuperCroc, the primitive Sarcosuchus imperator from the early Cretaceous of Africa is one of the main giant crocodile-like reptiles that ever lived. It was almost twice as long as the largest modern crocodile, and weighed up to 10 times as much.
