Confractosuchus: The Crocodile That Hunted Baby Australian Dinosaurs

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

The script for this episode is now on Patreon. List of sources included + paleoart. Download it here: www.patreon.com/posts/63701904

[@John.0z]

Has this find been placed on display? If not, is it, or a copy of it, likely to be on display soon? I am planning a trip up to the Winton area, and it would be nice to include this find in that trip.

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

@@John.0z I haven't visited Winton recently but, from what I've read online, the Confractosuchus fossil is on display at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum :)

[@John.0z]

@@PrehistoricAustralia Fabulous. Thank you again! I really have to get to work planning that trip.... once all this damned rain stops and the flood damage gets repaired. :-(

[@JoeTheAlchemist]

Thanks for sharing! The serendipity of this discovery still blows my mind. The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum sent me just one piece of this large fossil as they couldn't work out where it fit amongst the rest of the smashed specimen. It was the first vertebrate fossil I ever CT scanned with neutrons (not X-rays, as you stated), and the first dinosaur discovered using neutrons. As soon as I saw the 4th trocantor I called the museum to say that they had sent me an ornithopod and not a croc! It then took 5 years and many more neutron and X-ray CT scans of every piece of this puzzle to prove beyond a doubt that the ornithopod was stomach content. Thanks again for the excellent summary!

[@Radekuroshi]

I must say that I have discovered this channel just recently and I am totally in love! It is much deeper, much more comprehensive grab of the knowlege about prehistory of this absolutely amazing part of the world and I feel like I'm getting all the answers for all the questions I wanted to ask.

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

I’m so glad to hear you find this channel a deeper and comprehensive cover of Australian palaeontology as that’s exactly what we’re aiming for 😊 Thanks for your lovely feedback!

[@jointcerulean3350]

This is an Awesome discovery, also very good presentation, I just found this channel while looking up on Australian megafauna, glad I did because this is really impeccably done on all levels. Also its cool they found a new species of extinct crocodile in Australia considering how diverse they were in Australia up until the late Pleistocene when there were giant terrestrial ziphodont mekosuchine crocodiles as the top apex predators of the Pleistocene on land along with the giant venomous varanids, and large constrictor snakes. And being found during the age of the dinosaurs, Also the name is very fitting and dope to. As for if the dinosaur found in its stomach was hunted or scavenged, as you said its unclear, but also possible that Kleptoparasitism occurred, were confractosuchus might have stolen this smaller dinosaur from another carnivorous dinosaur that was small or some other terrestrial reptile close to the waters edge perhaps. Also other newly discovered extinct crocodiles were discovered earlier in Australia around 2020 and 2021, Paludirex and Gunggamarandu. And there is a unsubscribed new terrestrial ziphodont mekosuchine crocodile species from the Pleistocene yet to be described and published.

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

Thanks for your wonderful feedback Joint cerulean 33! That's good for us to know on our end that people are finding Prehistoric Australia while searching for Australian megafauna on KZbin. We will be doing videos on Cenozoic Australia eventually - I'm just pretty fascinated with Mesozoic Australia at present hahaha. Australia does indeed have a long and fascinating natural history of crocodilians. Might be an interesting video to do in the future? The whole history of crocodiles in Australia? I'll definitely do some research on those new extinct crocodile species you mentioned :) Hope you continue to enjoy our channel!

[@prehistoricnewzealand3942]

Very interesting and well made video, there was so much I learned from watching it! 😁

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

Thanks mate! :D Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jointcerulean3350]

@Prehistoric Australia Cool, and that’s awesome to hear, and 100% Mesozoic Australia has very incredibly impressive and unique dinosaur species, carnivores like the australovenator are like real life indoraptors, with those long arms with very long insane claws with a slender sleeker builds, wonder if Australia’s top apex predator was a giant megaraptoran or something else? Hopefully more complete and new dinosaur fossils are found to see how really unique and diverse the Mesozoic fauna really was. Also have to check out the rest of the content on the channel, a lot of great stuff. Also that would be phenomenal! The whole history of crocodiles in Australia sounds rad, also nice! And for sure, super awesome channel, it will for sure get attention soon enough, surprised it hasn’t yet. Also my apologies, for some reason it won’t let me reply to your comment for some reason.

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

The next episode is about the Winton Formation, and the following will be about Australovenator, so get excited haha. Oh I have no doubt that many more incredible dinosaur fossils will come out of the Winton Formation for years to come! Definitely check out the other episodes on the channel and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments :) I respond to everyone's comments eventually. Glad you like the history of Australian crocodiles idea! Maybe I should pray to the omnipotent KZbin algorithm :P hahaha. Thanks for your support mate! Hope you enjoy learning about Australian palaeontology on our channel :)

[@TyrannoNoddy]

TBH like you said, it's impossible to be certain over whether the dinosaur was hunted or scavenged (seeing those words together also makes me wince given the association with... other dinosaurs, lol). The fact that it seemed to die very soon after consuming it is peculiar though, assuming crocodilian stomachs worked the same as you described. But yeah, very exciting discovery, your enthusiasm really shines though!

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

I understand what you’re saying (I hate the silly debate about T-rex being a scavenger or an active hunter) but the point was more about whether the dinosaur was scavenged or hunted in this specific situation. Which is unfortunately unproveable at present, yeah. The stomach acids point was brought up by the authors so I thought I’d mention it, but to be honest it’s a big assumption that all crocodilian stomach acids were as strong as they are today. Thanks TyrannoNoddy, I was very excited about this unique discovery 😁

[@valentinfejes]

Andrew: "Was this dinosaur hunted down or scavenged?" Me: "It's fooked up, for sure!" Jokes aside, it was a great video as always, but let me suggest something! Instead of using something like this "vertebrae not all fused + tiny body size = juvenile", wouldn't it be more spectacular if you use something like this below? ✅ vertebrae not all fused ✅ tiny body size THIS DINOSAUR WAS A JUVENILE. This was the idea that came to my mind first.

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

That’s pretty much it hey 😂 That is a possibility I will run past my editor. We’re experimenting with editing styles at the moment so it’s a good time to do it. Thanks for the positive feedback mate! 😄

[@rileyernst9086]

I think its pretty safe to assume that prehistoric crocs predated and attempted predation on dinosaurs. I mean their modern relatives are so game they have been seen attaching themselves to the trunks of fully grown bull elephants. They do not tend to survive very long after doing that though.

[@harnawazboparai8751]

Hmmm... it can honestly go either way for the hunted or scavenged choices. BUT... there is one theory I’m thinking of that may have led to crocodile’s early death. What about the possibility of a sudden drop of earth material whether a landslide, mudslide, etc on the crocodile? There doesn’t appear to be too much evidence of another organism harming the Confractosuchus prior to its death.

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

That’s a really good point! That theory wasn’t brought up by the authors but it sounds likely. I guess the issue would be the concretion found around the crocodile doesn’t seem like an indication of landslides/mudslides but I fully admit at this stage I don’t know enough about sedimentation to know for sure.

[@rileyernst9086]

I think scavenging does not need to be mentioned, its always brought in with extinct terrestrial and semi aquatic or marine animals and its not actually a thing. Nothing gets by by just scavenging. And nothing asside from the threat of clashing with more dangerous adversaries is going to impede a predatory animal from scavenging despite its specialisations. A corpse is easy meat after all and even the most nuche predator eats meat. The reason why we see solitary specialists like cheetahs and leopards avoiding kills is they are avoiding dangerous adversaries like hyenas and lions that often dominate kills with sheer power of pressence, ill temper an/or numbers. Hyenas were once thought(in the west at least, no one with a bit of experience with them living in the native range of hyenas actually thought this) to be scavengers but it is now known that they are extremely accomplished nocturnal hunters. Jackals and coyotes will hunt rabbits, rodents birds and insects. Vultures can actually soley be scavengers as they can spot and effortlessly soar to food that is dozens of miles away.

[@parrotking8315]

On Pinterest I have a Board called Ancient Australian crocodilens were I have logged 15 species in Australia's history I was amazed that there were two gharial like crocodilen species found in Australia they are Gunggamarandu Maunala: extinct genus of tomistomine crocodilian from Pliocene-Pleistocene aged deposits in the Darling Downs of Australia ultrastenos willisi: an extinct genus of Australian mekosuchine crocodilian first described in 2016. was discovered at Riversleigh in northwestern Queensland, Australia, and lived during the Late Oligocene era. Either way there's so much more to find in Australia 😁

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

Hey would you be able to provide the link to your Pinterest board? An easy-to-access list of prehistoric Australian crocodiles sounds like a perfect starting point for my future research :D Thank you kindly!

[@GreedGibbon]

can you do minmi next?

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

Hi gibbon, thanks for your request! We have promised our Patrons that our first priority for video requests goes to them. Hope you understand :) So, if you would like us to do Minmi next, consider pledging a donation to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/prehistoricaustralia

[@GreedGibbon]

@@PrehistoricAustralia Alright thank you so much, ill think about supporting soon!

[@robertgomez5985]

Wow New crocodile species was can be dangerous right

[@PrehistoricAustralia]

Certainly would have been! 😃

[@carlw72]

This is fascinating and can’t wait to watch your entire series but can you please stop with the sound effect breaks?!?