Paleontologists have uncovered the primary direct bodily proof that colossal prehistoric crocodiles hunted massive plant-eating mammals in what’s now Colombia roughly 12 million years in the past.
Reconstruction of the faunal assemblage of La Venta, exhibiting the hypothetical predation occasion with Purussaurus neivensis attacking Pericotoxodon platignathus; additionally pictured within the foreground are Anhinga cf. A. grandis and Caiman sp. Picture credit score: Miguel Hernandez.
“There was a lot prey obtainable that mammalian predators couldn’t have eaten all of it,” stated Dr. Oscar Wilson, a postdoctoral researcher on the College of Helsinki.
“Our new research reveals that crocodylians specifically had been the area’s most necessary predators, particularly when it got here to searching massive prey.”
Dr. Wilson and his colleagues from Colombia, France, Argentina, Canada and america analyzed 4 fossilized bones belonging to a few species of enormous hoofed mammals that when lived within the La Venta area of Colombia’s Huila division.
The specimens belong to Pericotoxodon platignathus, a rhinoceros-sized relative of historic South American ungulates, and two elephant-like herbivores referred to as Xenastrapotherium kraglievichi and Granastrapotherium snorki.
The researchers estimate these creatures weighed between roughly 600 and 1,800 kg.
All 4 specimens — a cranium, a leg bone and two jawbones — bear distinctive marks, round and bisected puncture wounds, and areas of crushed bone per the chew of a large crocodylian.
The probably predator was Purussaurus, an infinite extinct caiman that would exceed 6 m (20 ft) in size and weigh almost 1,800 kg, making it one of many largest crocodylians recognized to have existed.
A number of the chew forces wanted to supply the punctures approached or exceeded 40,000 newtons per tooth, figures broadly per prior estimates of Purussaurus’ chew power.
One jawbone, belonging to Xenastrapotherium, confirmed a second, completely different set of marks — a collection of parallel grooves the researchers attribute to a smaller, land-dwelling species of crocodile relative referred to as Langstonia huilensis.
The scientists interpret this as proof of a separate scavenging occasion, distinct from the deadly assault.
Many of the chew marks had been focused on the animals’ heads and jaws, a sample that mirrors how fashionable crocodiles such because the saltwater crocodile and Nile crocodile usually ambush and seize massive prey.
The findings bolster earlier theoretical work suggesting that in historic South America, the place massive mammalian carnivores had been comparatively scarce in comparison with different continents, large crocodylians and different reptiles stuffed the ecological position that lions, wolves and bears occupy elsewhere at the moment.
Purussaurus and different predators had been possible key regulators of enormous herbivore populations in Miocene wetland ecosystems.
“The frequency of marks possible made by Purussaurus means that it was an necessary predator in these tropical ecosystems,” Dr. Wilson stated.
The results seem this month within the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
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Oscar E. Wilson et al. Bodily proof of crocodylian predation on ungulates within the Center Miocene of Colombia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, printed on-line August 16, 2026; doi: 10.1080/02724634.2026.2701154
