
Lucy’s hunter: a 15-foot, half-ton crocodile that preyed on Lucy’s 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.











