All articles tagged with #crocodylus lucivenator
Researchers describe Crocodylus lucivenator, a 12–15 ft ambush predator from the Hadar Formation in Ethiopia dating to about 3.4–3.0 million years ago, likely the ecosystem’s top predator and a hunter of Lucy’s hominin kin.
Scientists identified a new giant prehistoric crocodile, Crocodylus lucivenator (“Lucy’s hunter”), weighing roughly 270–590 kg and reaching about 12–15 ft, as the largest predator in its Hadar-area ecosystem in what is now Ethiopia. Based on 121 fossil remains from the Hadar site, researchers say this ambush predator likely hunted Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, around 3 million years ago, with a distinctive hump on its snout that may have helped males attract mates.