Found the remains of the most important enemy of the dinosaurs

Surely each of us in childhood lookeddocumentaries about dinosaurs inhabiting the Earth millions of years ago. Looking at these huge creatures with many teeth, it seemed to many of us that they dominated all other animals and there was no one to be afraid of. A new discovery of scientists showed that this is far from the case - about 210 million years ago, crocodile-like predators inhabited our planet, which could easily attack many dinosaurs and kill them. They lived almost everywhere except cold Antarctica, including in the territory of modern Russia. So who were they - the main enemies of the dinosaurs?

Crocodiles have the most powerful bite of all animals on the planet.

It's about predatory reptiles from the groupRauisuchia, which in their appearance really resembled modern crocodiles. They were gigantic - the body length of the largest individuals reached ten meters, and their large skulls were dotted with curved teeth. These animals must have really produced an awesome look on dinosaurs.

The main enemies of the dinosaurs

Recently, the remains of large representatives of predatorsRauisuchia species were also found in the Republic of South Africa. According to paleontologists, about 200 million years ago, these predators were the largest animals that inhabited Africa. This is evidenced by fossilized teeth found by paleontologists, jaws of limbs and other parts of the body of ancient "crocodiles". It seems that these bloodthirsty creatures really kept African dinosaurs at bay, especially herbivores.

This is what the reptiles of Rauisuchia looked like

It is noteworthy that the fossilized remains werefound by paleontologists for a long time, but their belonging to the reptiles of the species Rauisuchia was proved only in 2019. the size of the teeth of ancient creatures makes a terrifying impression - you just look at the photo below, where a person holds them in his hand. Herbivorous dinosaurs clearly did not want to become victims of predatory reptiles.

Rauisuchia reptile goiter size compared to human hand

The most dangerous animals

However, these creatures could not hold dinosaurs.eternity. According to scientists, they lived in the so-called Triassic period, and the recently found remains belong to one of the youngest species of ancient crocodiles. It may well be that paleontologists found the bones of an individual from the time of their extinction - as soon as they disappeared, the dinosaurs again stood up as the most dangerous animals in Africa.

It is interesting: If you do not go in for sports, your heart will become like a monkey

This discovery reminded scientists of the importance ofre-study of the remains excavated many years ago. After all, if they had not examined the mysterious bones of the jaw and teeth, we would not have learned about one of the most dangerous animals of antiquity. Yes, dinosaurs are extremely dangerous creatures, but they also had enemies that they were afraid of.

In general, dinosaur life is still embracedmany secrets. For example, there are many theories about the debate over the cause of the extinction of gigantic creatures. But recently, we carefully studied them and wrote material describing the chronological chain of events that led to the extinction of ancient monsters.