University of Florida researchers have unearthed a new and enormous species of crocodile in a Colombian coal mine.
The crocodile, Acherontisuchus guajiraensis, the latest prehistoric reptile to be found in El Cerrejón coal mine, was dug up by Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Jonathan Bloch and Carlos Jaramillo, a Paleo-botanist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Researchers said the Acherontisuchus species was a relative of modern-day crocodiles and not their direct ancestors. This species dates back 60 million years, at the period immediately following the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs. These giant crocodiles belonged to a group that somehow managed to survive the cataclysm.
