Newly-discovered 'hypercarnivore' ate dinosaurs and is related to crocodiles

A newly discovered “hypercarnivore” dinosaur was a terrifying ancestor of crocodiles measureing over 11 feet long and capable of eating other dinosaurs, according to scientists.

The Kostensuchus atrox used its "powerful jaw and big teeth" to become a top predator, its fearsome allowing it to munch down on a diet of other dinosaurs. Estimates say the beast weighed 250 kg, around 551 pounds, which is around the same as an adult grizzly bear.

The new details come after a "remarkably well-preserved" fossil find in Argentina. Known as ‘K. atrox’, the fearsome predator likely lived at the time just before the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, according Paleontologist Professor Fernando Nova said.

He said the fossil was discovered in the Chorrillo Formation in southern Patagonia and is believed to have formed around 70 million years ago during the Maastrichtian age at the very end of the Cretaceous period.

This was a "warm, seasonally humid" time in which creatures including dinosaurs, turtles, frogs, and various mammals roamed among freshwater floodplains.

Prof Novas said: "The new fossil unearthed in this formation is largely intact, including a skull and jaws with visible details, as well as multiple bones from the body. This crocodile-like apex predator may have reached around 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) long and weighed around 250 kilos, with a wide, powerful jaw and big teeth capable of devouring large prey — likely including medium-sized dinosaurs."

K. atrox was named by the team after the word for the Patagonian wind int eh native Tehuelche, which is ‘kosten’, the ‘suchus’ comes ftom the Egyptian crocodile-headed god known as Souchos, and ‘atrox’ means “fierce” or “harsh”. The research team named the species Kostensuchus atrox, referring to the Patagonian wind known in the Tehuelche native language as the Kosten and the Egyptian crocodile-headed god known as Souchos, with atrox meaning “fierce” or “harsh”.

Prof Novas, of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires, said: "K atrox itself is not a dinosaur, but rather a peirosaurid crocodyliform, an extinct group of reptiles related to modern crocodiles and alligators." The species, described in the journal PLOS One, is the second-largest predator known to scientists from the Maastrichtian Chorrillo Formation. Researchers believe it was likely one of the top predators in the region.

Prof Novas added: "K atrox is also the first crocodyliform fossil found in the Chorrillo Formation, and one of the most intact peirosaurid crocodyliforms ever found." It comes after experts said dinosaur fossils ould hold the key to new cancer discoveries and influence future treatments for humans.

In a new study published in the journal Biology, which was almost a decade in the making, researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and Imperial College London identified preserved red blood cell-like structures in a dinosaur fossil.

The findings raised the possibility that prehistoric creatures could be used to study ancient tumours, helping to fill in the “jigsaw” of cancer’s molecular building blocks, and potentially influencing future treatments for humans.