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Re: BIG CROCS - REALLY, REALLY BIG CROCS



>Pusurusurrussusaurus,  or whatever it's called, does have a complete skull
>(i.e.
>a complete fossil skull is known), or, at least that's what a photo published
>in the Brittanica yearbook (1994 I think) shows. Apparently, P. ate giant
>turtles and rodents. Well, big capybara things - OK so maybe they're not
>rodents!

        _Purussaurus_ (with 2 s's) is not known from a complete skull,
unless there has been a very recent and undescribed find.  The picture to
which you refer, if it's the same one published in _Terra_ a few years
back, is based on a fragmentary jaw (and some other bones) from the Amazon
basin.  The skull in that photo was sculpted, extrapolating from the
dimensions of a modern croc based on the fragment.  This isn't necessarily
the correct size, though, since it could have, for example, been
snub-nosed, or somesuch.  It's great to think of something that big,
though, isn't it?  8-)


Jerry D. Harris
Denver Museum of Natural History
2001 Colorado Blvd.
Denver, CO  80205
(303) 370-6403
Internet:  jdharris@teal.csn.net
CompuServe:  73132,3372

--)::)>   '''''''''''''/O\'''''''''''`  Jpq--   =o}\   w---^/^\^o

Overheard in the Denver Museum's
old Fossil Mammal Hall, from a mother
to her daugher:

"See there?  That's the camel-dinosaur, and
the horse-dinosaur, and the elephant-dinosaur..."

--)::)>   '''''''''''''/O\'''''''''''`  Jpq--   =o}\   w---^/^\^o