National Geographic Museum Shows Biggest Saltwater Crocodile Genus

Summary: National Geographic Museum shows biggest saltwater crocodile genus Machimosaurus from Jan. 27 to May 8, according to Jan. 10's Cretaceous Research.

Machimosaurus rex by scientific illustrator Davide Bonadonna: Nat Geo Photography @NatGeoPhotos via Twitter Jan. 12, 2016

Exhibits at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., from Jan. 27, to May 8, 2016, are including Machimosaurus, the world's biggest saltwater crocodile genus according to Cretaceous Research Jan. 10, 2016.

The study’s seven co-writers base their findings upon a skull discovered in 2014 at a summer archaeological dig 31.07 miles (50 kilometers) south of Tatouine, Tunisia. The skull can be measured accurately because of access in Tunis by the research team led by Federico Fanti of the University of Bologna in Italy. Research team members do not have access to the skeleton, whose 52 feet 6 inches (16 meters) worth of bones remain at the currently off-limits site.

Site access entails special permission since the Tunisian Revolution from Dec. 17, 2010, to Jan. 14, 2011.

The Tunisian desert functions as a site for discovering the biggest saltwater crocodile because what is now Tunisia was a shallow sea 130 million years ago.

Desert sites generate negative and positive reactions from paleontologists since arid, dry ecosystems and excellent drainage obstruct the destructiveness of bacteria in charge of decomposing matter. Tetsuto Miyashita of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, holds that the high frequency and the rapid onset of sandstorms risk burying bones under sand. He indicates that “It’s possible that if we keep postponing the return to the field site, within several years the site will be gone” forever.

The scouring power of the sand particles joins the furious force of the strong winds to grind bones into powder.

Herpetologists know of the extant modern saltwater crocodile species as typically measuring no more than 17 feet (5.18 meters) long, from snout tip to tail tip.

The Age of Reptiles from the late Paleozoic geological time scale era through the Mesozoic era of 252 to 66 million years ago left big fossilized specimens. Fossils of Deinosuchus from the Mesozoic’s Late Cretaceous period of 80 to 73 million years measure 32.81 to 39.38 feet (10 to 12 meters) in length. Paleontologists note the crocodile-like Sarcosuchus in Africa, the site of large 36.09- to 42.65-foot-long (11- to 13-meter-long) specimens, and in South America 100 million years ago.

Fossilized reptiles typically offer bones and impressions, not organs, even though continuities in crocodile anatomies help paleontologists reconstruct dinosaur insides.

All living crocodiles, as the only surviving descendants of their shared archosaur ancestry with dinosaurs, possess four-chambered hearts even though other living reptiles have three-chambered hearts.

The biggest saltwater crocodile qualifies for survivalist status for emerging beyond mass die-offs 150 million years ago, preserving archosaur features and refining crocodile behaviors and physiques. The modern saltwater crocodile retains the fish and turtle dietary preferences, sideways slashing predation technique and strong-legged, strong-tailed physique of the biggest saltwater crocodile, Machimosaurus rex. Bullet-teeth sustain saltwater crocodiles then and now since Tetsuto Miyashita observes: “These are built for crushing the bones rather than slice through or pierce through flesh.”

It takes a severed skull to ponder which species do and do not survive changing ecosystems 150 million years ago.

Phylogeny (evolutionary development) places Machimosaurus rex closer to M. hugii and M. mosae than to M. buffetauti, according to discoverer Federico Fendi; maximum body lengths for three Machimosaurus species compared with human diver 1.8-meter (5 feet 9 inches) in height (life reconstructions by Dmitry Bogdanov): M.T. Young et al. (2014), CC BY 4.0, via Royal Society Publishing Open Science

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Machimosaurus rex by scientific illustrator Davide Bonadonna: Nat Geo Photography @NatGeoPhotos via Twitter Jan. 12, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/NatGeoPhotos/status/686889389914456064

Phylogeny (evolutionary development) places Machimosaurus rex closer to M. hugii and M. mosae than to M. buffetauti, according to discoverer Federico Fendi; maximum body lengths for three Machimosaurus species compared with human diver 1.8-meter (5 feet 9 inches) in height (life reconstructions by Dmitry Bogdanov): M.T. Young et al. (2014), CC BY 4.0, via Royal Society Publishing Open Science @ http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royopensci/1/2/140222/F46.large.jpg

For further information:

Fanti, Federico; Tetsuto Miyashita; Luigi Cantelli; Fawsi Mnasri; Jihed Dridi; Michela Contessi; and Andrea Cau. Available online 10 January 2016. "The largest thalattosuchian (Crocodylomorpha) supports teleosaurid survival across the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary." Cretaceous Research, vol. 61 (June 2016): 263-274. DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2015.11.011
Available @ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667115301178

Izadi, Elahe. 12 January 2016. "Terrifying ancient crocodile discovered in the Sahara was almost the size of a bus." The Washington Post > News > Speaking of Science.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/01/12/terrifying-ancient-crocodile-discovered-in-the-sahara-was-the-size-of-a-bus/

Nat Geo Photography @NatGeoPhotos. 12 January 2016. "The biggest sea-dwelling creature ever has been discovered. Meet Machimosaurus rex." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/NatGeoPhotos/status/686889389914456064

National Geographic. 11 January 2016. "Giant Prehistoric Crocodile Discovered in Tunisia." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfg69kUt2eI

News Staff. 13 January 2016. "Bone-crushing prehistoric reptile the largest marine crocodile ever discovered." University of Alberta Faculty of Science > News.
Available @ https://www.ualberta.ca/science/science-news/2016/january/machimosaurus-rex

Young, Mark T.; Stéphane Hua; Lorna Steel; Davide Foffa; Stephen L. Brusatte; Silvan Thüring; Octávio Mateus; José Ignacio Ruiz-Omeñaca; Philipe Havlik; Yves Lepage; and Marco Brandalise De Andrade. 15 October 2014. "Revision of the Late Jurassic teleosaurid genus Machimosaurus (Crocodylomorpha, Thalattosuchia)." Royal Society Open Science. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.140222.
Available @ http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/1/2/140222