Carnufex carolinensi: “Carolina Butcher” A Massive Croc That Hunted on its Hind Legs

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Carnufex carolinensi: “Carolina Butcher” A Massive Croc That Hunted on its Hind Legs. Photo: Jorge Gonzales

Paleontologists from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences recovered parts of Carnufex’s skull, spine and upper forelimb from the Pekin Formation in Chatham County, North Carolina. Because the skull of Carnufex was preserved in pieces, it was difficult to visualize what the complete skull would have looked like in life. To get a fuller picture of Carnufex’s skull the researchers scanned the individual bones with the latest imaging technology – a high-resolution surface scanner. Then they created a three-dimensional model of the reconstructed skull, using the more complete skulls of close relatives to fill in the missing pieces.

Reconstructed skull of Carnufex carolinensis. 3D surface models of skull bones shown in white. Grey areas are missing elements reconstructed from close relatives of Carnufex.

The Pekin Formation contains sediments deposited 231 million years ago in the beginning of the Late Triassic (the Carnian), when what is now North Carolina was a wet, warm equatorial region beginning to break apart from the supercontinent Pangea. “Fossils from this time period are extremely important to scientists because they record the earliest appearance of crocodylomorphs and theropod dinosaurs, two groups that first evolved in the Triassic period, yet managed to survive to the present day in the form of crocodiles and birds,” says Lindsay Zanno, assistant research professor at NC State, director of the Paleontology and Geology lab at the museum, and lead author of a paper describing the find. “The discovery of Carnufex, one of the world’s earliest and largest crocodylomorphs, adds new information to the push and pull of top terrestrial predators across Pangea.”

Source: www.Gizmodo.com, 2015