This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A new species of ancient crocodile relative that lived around 170 million years ago has been discovered by scientists at the University of Portsmouth and Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco. Unlike most crocodiles, this animal had a long, narrow snout filled with exceptionally thin, needlelike teeth.
The teeth were so slender that they are unlike those of any known close relative. The animal, named Ctenosuchus tenuidens, belonged to a group of marine and freshwater reptiles known as thalattosuchians, which lived during the age of the dinosaurs. The fossils were found in rocks that formed in ancient rivers and lakes in what is now the Atlas Mountains of southeastern Morocco.
Hamzah Imran from the University of Portsmouth's School of the Environment and Life Sciences is lead author of the research published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. He said, "We noticed these little black circles on either side of the long bone in the middle of one of the fossils, so we put it under a microscope. "We carefully scratched around one of the black circles with a scalpel, and as we uncovered more of it, it became longer and longer.
That's when we realized these little black circles were actually incredibly thin teeth. "These comblike teeth inspired the name Ctenosuchus tenuidens, as 'cteno' means 'comb,' 'suchus' means 'crocodile,' and 'tenuidens' means 'thin teeth.'" By studying the fossil teeth under powerful microscopes and examining their internal structure, Imran and his colleagues found that the teeth had specialized ridges and were closely spaced. These features suggest that Ctenosuchus had a very unusual diet.
Rather than hunting large prey, it likely fed on very small fish, crustaceans such as fairy shrimp and other small aquatic creatures. Imran said, "The teeth are so fine that we don't think it was catching normal prey. If it caught a big fish, and the fish wriggled, those delicate teeth would get smashed.
We think the animal was probably eating soft prey like shrimp, worms and tiny fish, so nothing that would break its teeth. "These feeding habits make this particular species very different from other long-snouted crocodiles, so it really is quite an exciting discovery!" The research helps scientists better understand the diversity and ecology of ancient crocodile relatives that lived in the southern supercontinent Gondwana, which included modern-day Africa. It also shows that different groups of prehistoric animals evolved similar feeding adaptations independently.
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