Hairy Museum of Natural History

During the Jurassic period, one family of crocodiles (the Metriorhynchids) returned to the sea, streamlining their bodies, losing their armor, developing a tail fluke, and modifying their feet into flippers. Unlike other Mesozoic marine reptiles (ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs), they never really got much publicity, perhaps because they went extinct by the beginning of the Cretaceous, or perhaps because their fossils, while interesting, weren’t as numerous or dramatic as their maritime contemporaries.

Thankfully, a new specimen of Dakosaurus andiniensis has shown up to give the group some much-needed press. With a robust, toothy skull reminiscent of a Japanese movie monster, Dakosaurus looks like a crocodile trying to be a shark, or at least a mosasaur. Measuring in at 13 feet long, it is also the largest metriorhynchid known.

National Geographic funded the research, and they’ve got the story and pictures to show for it.

Newswise has photos and reconstructions of the skull.

Palaeoblog has additional background and the family tree.

And afarensis has a summary worth checking out as well.

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Jurassic, Recent Discoveries, Reptiles.