Early this month, an article describing the largest crocodile ever lived in Africa was published on Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, by Christopher A. Brochu & Glenn W. Storrs. 

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2012.652324

This formidable ancient predator is named Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni, with its body length reaching about 7.5 meters, 25 feet! Lurking in the East African waters (Lake Turkana region) between 2-4 million years ago, this monster could be the ultimate nightmare of most animals that drank from lakes and rivers.

According to the article, the new species resembles a man-eating crocodile, the Crocodylus anthropophagus found in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Therefore, the possibility of early hominids rendering preys of the even larger Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni has been discussed. Although there is no direct evidence that this gigantic creature included early humans in its menu, its enormous size and super-broad jaw certainly allowed it to gulp down adult humans without difficulty! Under the shadow of yet another fatal predator, it was not easy at all for our early ancestors to survive such perils...

Relative sizes

Relative sizes of A: Modern human, B: Plio-Pleistocene Australopithecines, C: Largest Nile crocodile, D: Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni

Modified from C. A. Brochu & G. W. Storrs, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 32:587-602, 2012

Exactly how huge are these colossal ancient crocodiles? With a good representative of fossil individuals housed in the National Museums of Kenya, I had a very close look at their massive skulls and jaws today!

Ancient croc with baboon

To demonstrate the capability of Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni tackling on early humans, I put a skull of a male Olive Baboon between two Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni skulls (facing forward) as a reference. It seems that a baboon would only make a snack of these giant monsters!

Powerful jaw!

Now the lower jaw! It is clearly seen that the tooth sockets of this crocodile are about the same size of the baboon's eye sockets! I will not be surprised if ancient human remains are found carrying tooth marks of these huge crocodiles.

The most recently found specimen, a complete cranium together with a mandible, was discovered by the Koobi Fora Research Project in 2009 in the Lake Turkana region. The initial field report is written by Lawrence Nzuve, my friend who works in the Turkana Basin Institute.

Courtesy of Koobi Fora Research Project, taken by Lawrence Nzuve

Being 7.5 meters long, the Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni dwarfs any of the living crocodiles on this planet. What could have driven these ancient giants to extinction is still to be revealed.

"Oh, yes. I'm fat..."

A Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) found on the bank of the Mara River.

"Alas! Man-eating crocs! Well done, my brothers!"