Sarcosuchus Temporal range: Late Hauterivian - Early Albian | |
An artist's illustration of Sarcosuchus imperator | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Sauropsida |
Superorder: | Crocodylomorpha |
Genus: | †Sarcosuchus Broin & Taquet, 1966 |
Species: | S. imperator |
Binomial name | |
Sarcosuchus imperator Broin & Taquet, 1966 |
Sarcosuchus, meaning "Flesh Crocodile", is an extinct genus of crocodylomorph, a distant relative of crocodile. It is a large contender for the largest known crocodylomorph the world has ever seen. It most likely measured 12 metres (40 ft) long, and the head alone was the size of a man. Like most crocodiles, it had a very powerful bite force, possibly up to 9 tons, far exceeding any modern-day crocodile, and is one of the most powerful bite forces on Earth. The bite force exceeds that of Tyrannosaurus rex. Sarcosuchus, while larger than any modern day crocodile, was referred to by many as the "King Croc". It is thought to have been capable of lunging up from the water and dragging a full grown sauropod into the water.
Sarcosuchus would have eaten anything from fish, other crocodilians such as crocodiles, to even dinosaurs! There has been evidence of a large Sarcosuchus eating a young Nigersaurus, a large diplodocid from the same time period and area in Africa as Sarcosuchus. It probably competed for food or territory with the spinosaurid dinosaurs, such as Suchomimus or Spinosaurus, also semi-aquatic reptiles that probably hunted fish as well, or carnosaurs such as Carcharodontosaurus.
Sarcosuchus was a huge crocodilyform, growing as long as a bus, and weighed as much as an african bull elephant. It had 132 huge, conical teeth inside its 6-foot (1.8-meter) long head, and could easily crush bone with its powerful jaws. That alone made it a terrifying predator, along with the fact that it was also an expert ambush predator makes it even more frightening, making even some of the largest dinosaurs have to watch their backs. What it would do was wait in the murky rivers or lakes that it lived in, and waited until a fish would swim by or a dinosaur would come to drink, and then would jump out, catch its prey by surprise, then bite down and drag the unlucky prey into the water, where it would be drowned quickly after. It basically ate anything it could overpower and kill. It had thick, scaly skin like all crocodilians, and also had short legs and a long, powerful tail, perectly designed to swim through water at fast speeds. Sarcosuchus is unique to most crocodilians, because it has a large, broad knob on the tip of its snout called a bulla, possibly to help get a better grip on prey, attract mates, or send out frequency sounds.
- Sarcosuchus made an appearance in a Walking with Dinosaurs special called Chased By Dinosaurs Land Of Giants, and nearly ate Nigel Marvin twice and it is shown living with Argentinosaurus, Giganotosaurus, and Macrogryphosaurus, when it would have never encountered any of the creatures seen in the series because it lived and died way before any of them first evolved and it lived in a totally different region of South America.
- It also made a debut in the popular show The Most Extreme, where it's shown how big it is compared to its closest relative, the Nile Crocodile.
- It's also in its own documentary from National Geographic, called SuperCroc, where paleontologists dig up Sarcosuchus and try to figure out how it lived.
- It also appears in a National Geographic Documentary, called When Crocs Ate Dinosaurs, Where it was swimming in the river & then launched out of the water attacking a Suchomimus.
- It also made a brief appearance in another National Geographic Documentary Dinomorphosis.
- It also appeared on Sky Monsters where it was protecting its eggs from pterosaurs & seen swimming below the surface of the water.
- It appears in Monsters Resurrected, and is shown to have been a rival to Spinosaurus.
- It made an appearance in Planet Dinosaur, where in the first episode, it scared off a Spinosaurus during a drought, and in the fifth episode where it fought over a young Paralititan with a Carcharodontosaurus, until the theropod got a better grip on the prey, so the croc slumped back into the river.
- It made an appearance in the 2018 television miniseries Deadly Dinosaurs With Steve Backshall where its bite force was estimated at 8 tonnes and was shown to be able to bite through bone and even steel.
- It also made an appearance in Jeff Corwin's Giant Monsters, where Jeff was chased around by one.
- A pair of male Sarcosuchus, known as the Sarco Brothers, are the main Antagonist of the Animated Film Dino Time "Back To The Jurassic".
- It appears in Jurassic World: The Game as a legendary amphibian, when it was a crocodylomorph in reality.
- It even made an appearance as an animated shadow in the PBS Documentary When Whales Walked: Journeys in Deep Time.
- It appears in ARK: Survival Evolved.