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"A Record Breaking Crocodile"

October 25, 2001
Dateline: Niger, Africa
The Sahara Desert
"A Record Breaking Crocodile"

Life 110 million years ago, wasn't easy. In fact, you would be hard pressed to be able to outrun the Big Boy Crocodile that has been discovered in the Sahara Desert.

Approximately 30 years ago, in an area of the Sahara known as Gadoufaoua in Niger, French paleontologists stumbled across several skulls and other fossilized bone of a crocodile that became known as Sarcosuchus imperator, which means 'flesh crocodile emperor.'

For some reason, this 'find' was not actively pursued until 1997. "Paul Sereno" a paleontologist and Explorer-in-Residence with National Geographic and his team began to dig and the excavation brought more of this Giant to the surface. "Sereno" has been working excavations in this area of Niger since 1990. The area where the Crocodile was found is a challenge, to say the least. It is remote, and HOT is an understatement. The temperatures reach as high as 125º.

When the expedition began in earnest in 1997, the team located fossilized jaw bones that were as long as some of the team members were tall. As strange as this sounds, their original reason for searching in this area was to attempt to locate dinosaurs. However, the discovery of the jaw was clear at the outset, this was no dinosaur!

A mini tour of this Crocodile reveals a length of 40 feet and it's weight ran in the neighborhood of 17,500 pounds. The jaw alone is over 6 feet with a good set of choppers, 100 teeth that could devour fish and small dinosaurs.

Another expedition in 2000 was fruitful as well. In fact, the team was now able to practically reconstruct half of the skeleton. Among the treasures found were vertebrae, skulls, limb bones and foot long bony armor plates.

By the way, if you noticed the area where the discoveries were made, perhaps you scratched your head, wondering. At the time this giant was roaming the Earth, the Sahara wasn't the 'desert.' Instead, there were rivers flowing, allowing lush greenery and an ample food supply.

For more in-depth information, visit the web sites we have provided for you. Believe me, your imagination will run wild. Enjoy!

Nancy, Director of Operations, Editor

National Geographic SuperCroc--Sarcosuchus imperator, photos, maps, bios, tour information
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/supercroc/

"SuperCroc" Fossil Found in Sahara"
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/10/1025_supercroc.html

National Geographic News @ nationalgeographic.com
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/10/1025_supercroc3.htm