Ancient Horned Crocodile Found—Ate Early Humans?
A newfound species of fossil crocodile that reached 19 feet long attacked early humans in Africa more than a million years ago, a new study says.
In a primeval version of the horror flick Lake Placid, a 19-foot-long (5.8-meter-long) horned crocodile may have leaped from the water to snack on early humans, a new fossil find suggests.
The newly described, 1.84-million-year-old species has been dubbed Crocodylus anthropophagus, which means "eater of humans" in Latin.
The croc's fossils were discovered in 2007 in Tanzania's fossil-rich Olduvai Gorge, a site that was also home to early humans—or hominids—such as the tiny species Homo habilis and Australopithecus boisei.
(Related: "Kenyan Fossils May Add New Branch to Human Family Tree.")
Crocodile bite marks had previously been found on hominid bones from the gorge. Based on
