Good old Dr Daz: He always manages to come out with new stuff that I had never even heard of before. In the latest editions of the increasingly excellent Tetrapod Zoology he introduces us to a series of small, land-dwelling crocodilians from Pacific islands, which were alive only a few thousand years ago, and were certainly contemporaeneous (and I think that is how you spell it) with our own species. This is something that you certainly have to check out..http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/05/mekosuchines_2009.php
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/05/more_recently_extinct_crocs.php
Those are fascinating!
ReplyDeleteI would really love to have seen a land-dwelling crocodilian.
My person favorite of land-dwelling animals of this type was Junggasuchus sloani. Now, it went extinct millions of years ago, so I doubt that anyone will find one.
However, it is believed that this animal was an ancestor of the modern crocodilians.
What did it look like? Well, it looked like a "hairless coyote with scales."
http://www.livescience.com/animals/041015_crocodile_link.html
It was found in the Junggar Basin in China, and because of its unusual appearance, it is believe that crocodiles evolved their powerful jaws first, then adapted to the life aquatic. This animal had very powerful jaws, but it was built almost exactly like a mammalian carnivore, like a coyote.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/08/0825_040825_crocodiles_fossils.html
So crocodiles evolved from an animal similar to a reptilian coyote.