Crocodile that terrorised Jurassic-era Madagascar

New research on fossils from Madagascar by Italian and French paleontologists has uncovered a previously unknown Jurassic beast. The research is published in PeerJ.

With deep and massive jaw bones and gigantic, serrated teeth – much like those of a Tyrannosaurus rex – Razanandrongobe sakalavae was undoubtedly a fearsome predator 165 million years ago.

The researchers have placed it in the Notosuchian clade, a group of crocodylomorphs that lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods whose fossils have been found across modern-day South America, Africa, Asia and Europe.

This fossil, however, is some 42 million years older than the previous oldest known Notosuchian. The new species is also the largest Notosuchian yet found.