Mega-croc vs supersnake: Researchers reveal 16-foot, 900-pound ancient species of crocodile that battled with 58 foot Titanoboa snake 60 million years ago

Researchers have revealed a 16-foot, 900-pound ancient species of crocodile that battle with 58 foot long snakes that swam in the same rivers as Titanoboa 60 million years ago in the world’s oldest-known rain forest.

The terrifying reptile, which has an unusually blunt snout, had an incredibly strong bite, the researchers say.

The claim the discovery sheds new light on the diversity of early rainforests, and how adaptable crocodiles are.

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The new species of crocodilian, illustrated here being constricted by. Called Anthracosuchus balrogus, after a ferocious fictional creature (the 'Balrog') that appeared in J.R.R. Tolkien's novel 'The Lord of the Rings'.

TOLKIEN'S CROC

Scientists assigned the species’ name, Anthracosuchus balrogus, in a study appearing online today in the journal Historical Biology.

Unearthed from the same layer of rock as Titanoboa in the Cerrejon coal mine of northern Colombia, the species is named for a ferocious fictional creature (the Balrog) that appeared in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel 'The Lord of the Rings' and dwelled deep in the middle-Earth 'Mines of Moria.'

The new species in the dyrosaurids family, lived alongside the 58-foot Titanoboa as portrayed in the Smithsonian Channel documentary on the 'monster snake.'

Scientists assigned the species’ name, Anthracosuchus balrogus, in a study appearing online today in the journal Historical Biology.

Unearthed from the same layer of rock as Titanoboa in the Cerrejon coal mine of northern Colombia, the species is named for a ferocious fictional creature (the Balrog) that appeared in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel 'The Lord of the Rings' and dwelled deep in the middle-Earth 'Mines of Moria.'

The new species opens a window to the early adaptability and diversity of tropical crocodyliforms, which may help scientists better understand how living crocodiles adapt to changing environments today, said lead author Alex Hastings, a postdoctoral researcher at Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg and former graduate student at the Florida Museum of Natural History  and UF’s department of geological sciences.

 

'It quickly became clear that the four fossil specimens were unlike any dyrosaur species ever found,' Hastings said.

'Everyone thinks that crocodiles are living fossils that have remained virtually unchanged for the last 250 million years.

'But what we’re finding in the fossil record tells a very different story.'

Jonathan Bloch, co-author and Florida Museum associate curator of vertebrate paleontology, said researchers were stunned when they first saw the new species.

'We couldn’t believe it had such a boxy, short skull and that it was still a dyrosaur,' Bloch said.

'It really busts the mold for these animals.

'It is such a completely different looking beast than we’ve seen for these crocodile-like animals.'

The animal is the third new species of ancient crocodilian pulled from Cerrejon, one of the world’s largest open-pit coal mines. 

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Titanoboa cerrejonensis measured 48 feet and weighed as much as a car. The monster relative of the boa constrictor lived in northern Colombia 60 million years ago

Originating in Africa, the dyrosaurids swam across the Atlantic Ocean to South America about 75 million year ago.

The family somehow survived the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs and persisted to become a top predator, Hastings said.

'This group offers clues as to how animals survive extinctions and other catastrophes,' Hastings said.

'As we face climates that are warmer today, it is important to understand how animals responded in the past.

'This family of crocodyliforms in Cerrejon adapted and did very well despite incredible obstacles, which could speak to the ability of living crocodiles to adapt and overcome.'

The crocodyliforms that lived in the Cerrejon ecosystem during the Paleocene, when temperatures were higher than today, thrived and grew to enormous sizes, Bloch said.

Dyrosaurids were commonly ocean-dwellers, but the new species lived in freshwater rivers, ate turtles and fish and would have lived in close proximity to Titanoboa.

However, the giant snake would have been a formidable threat to A. balrogus with the tremendous grip of its constricting coils, he said.

'Every once in a while, there was likely an encounter between Anthracosuchus and Titanoboa,”' Bloch said.

'Titanoboa was the largest predator around and would have tried to eat anything it could get its mouth on.'