CT scans of a decades-old specimen from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History show a new species of short-snouted crocodylomorph with unusually strong jaws, offering a rare snapshot of ecological specialization in the Late Triassic epoch. Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa (left) is disturbed by Hesperosuchus agilis (right) near a Coelophysis carcass at what will become modern-day…
Paleontologists have examined 289-million-year-old specimens of the early reptile Captorhinus aguti that preserve a covering of three-dimensional skin, a complete shoulder girdle and ribcage with cartilages, and — most astonishingly — protein remnants that predate the previous oldest-known example by nearly 100 million years. Captorhinus aguti. Image credit: Michael DeBraga. The move from water to…
Paleontologists analyzing fossils from Ethiopia have described a previously unknown crocodile species that shared the landscape with a hominid species called Australopithecus afarensis. Named Crocodylus lucivenator, the formidable predator may have stalked Australopithecus afarensis at watering holes in the wetlands and woodlands of the Pliocene. Crocodylus lucivenator overlapped with the famed Lucy and her hominin…
