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Paleontologists in South Korea have found fossilised footprints that revealed an extinct crocodile which ran like an ostrich.
The study, published on Thursday, said that the footprints were over 110 million years old.
Because the tracks were in a straight line, researchers understood that the animal was bipedal.
The new species has been given the name Batrachopus grandis.
“People tend to think of crocodiles as animals that don’t do very much; that they just laze around all day on the banks of the Nile or next to rivers in Costa Rica” said Martin Lockley, an author of the paper, to the BBC.
Nobody automatically thinks I wonder what this [creature] would be like if it was bipedal and could run like an ostrich or a T. rex”.
The existence of the creature is based entirely on the fossil prints, as no physical remains have yet been found.
However, Professor Lockley says that a bipedal animal is the only explanation.
“We can see all the digits, all the ridges in the skin – just as if you were looking at your hands,” he said. “They put one foot in front of another; they could pass a sobriety test walking on a straight line. And there are no front footprints.”
Professor Kyung Soo Kim, who also authored the paper alongside Jong Deock Lim, Seul Mi Bae and Anthony Romilio, corroberated Professor Lockley’s view.
This is because of how deep the animal’s heel left an impression in the fossil.
“Our trackways are very narrow-looking – more like a crocodile balancing on a tight-rope,” he told the BBC. “When combined with the lack of any tail-drag marks, it became clear that these creatures were moving bipedally.
1/9 Soap bubble structures showing light interference colours and patterning
Bubbles want to optimise space and minimise their surface area for a given volume of air. This unique phenomenon makes them a reliable, useful tool in many areas of research. In particular, materials science and ‘packing’ – how things fit together. Bubble walls drain under gravity, thin at the top, thick at the bottom and interferes with travelling lightwaves to create bands of colour. Black spots show the wall is too thin for interference colours, indicating the bubble is about to burst! – Kym Cox
Kym Cox/RPS
2/9 Upside down Jelly fish, Cassiopea xamachana
Instead of swimming, this species spends its time pulsing up and down in the water. Their diet is sea plankton and their coloration comes from the uptake of algae in the water. Some jellyfish species have been documented eating plastics in the ocean. One theory suggests that algae grows on the plastic. As it breaks down, the algae creates the odor of dimethyl sulfide that attracts hungry animals. – Mary Anne Chilton
Mary Anne Chilton/RPS
3/9 Tribolium confusum. Confused flour beetle.
This small beetle is a pest in stored grain and flour products. Scanning electron micrograph, coloured in Photoshop. – David Spears
David Spears/RPS
4/9 NGC7000 North American Nebula
The North America Nebula, NGC7000, is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb. The remarkable shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America, complete with a prominent Gulf of Mexico. The Cygnus Wall, a term for the “Mexico and Central America part” of the North America Nebula, exhibits the most concentrated star formations in the nebula. – Dave Watson
Dave Watson/RPS
5/9 Safety Corona
A safety pin is connected to a high tension AC generator. The pin ionizes the air around it. When the electrons fall back on an atom, the excess energy is emitted as a photon, which generate the corona glow around the pin. The fuzziness of the pin is because the camera did not actually capture light reflected on the pin but rather the light emitted by the ionized light around it. – Richard Germain
Richard Germain/RPS
6/9 Calmness of Eternity
Himalayas mountains, Nepal. Gosaikunda high-mountain lake. Point of shooting – 4400m. The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy’s appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 150,000 and 200,000 light-years. It is estimated to contain 100‚ 400 billion stars
Yevhen Samuchenko
Yevhen Samuchenko/RPS
7/9 Stag beetle
Stag beetle. Light microscopy. Magnification 5x. – Viktor Sykora
Viktor Sykora/RPS
8/9 Mapping1_OxygenIb_PEM
Final Major Project for an MA Photography Falmouth University. Project: Mapping 1, Post Exertional Malaise. Mapping 1, focuses on discovering the research behind Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Through exploration of perspective, complexities, and scientific multidisciplinary collaborations, I create imagery that explains, reveals and connects us consciously to the ambiguous and unknown. – Yasmin Crawford
Yasmin Crawford/RPS
9/9 Lovell Telescope Series 1c
I have always been fascinated with the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank since I went on a school trip as a child. Here, I wanted to take a series of closer, more detailed and more honest shots than we often see. Exploring the multitude of shapes and exposing the wear of the telescope, each photo in the series stands alone or can be viewed collectively, either way, they present a powerful portrayal of machine that helps humankind in their endeavours to understand space and time. – Marge Bradshaw
Marge Bradshaw/RPS
1/9 Soap bubble structures showing light interference colours and patterning
Bubbles want to optimise space and minimise their surface area for a given volume of air. This unique phenomenon makes them a reliable, useful tool in many areas of research. In particular, materials science and ‘packing’ – how things fit together. Bubble walls drain under gravity, thin at the top, thick at the bottom and interferes with travelling lightwaves to create bands of colour. Black spots show the wall is too thin for interference colours, indicating the bubble is about to burst! – Kym Cox
Kym Cox/RPS
2/9 Upside down Jelly fish, Cassiopea xamachana
Instead of swimming, this species spends its time pulsing up and down in the water. Their diet is sea plankton and their coloration comes from the uptake of algae in the water. Some jellyfish species have been documented eating plastics in the ocean. One theory suggests that algae grows on the plastic. As it breaks down, the algae creates the odor of dimethyl sulfide that attracts hungry animals. – Mary Anne Chilton
Mary Anne Chilton/RPS
3/9 Tribolium confusum. Confused flour beetle.
This small beetle is a pest in stored grain and flour products. Scanning electron micrograph, coloured in Photoshop. – David Spears
David Spears/RPS
4/9 NGC7000 North American Nebula
The North America Nebula, NGC7000, is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb. The remarkable shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America, complete with a prominent Gulf of Mexico. The Cygnus Wall, a term for the “Mexico and Central America part” of the North America Nebula, exhibits the most concentrated star formations in the nebula. – Dave Watson
Dave Watson/RPS
5/9 Safety Corona
A safety pin is connected to a high tension AC generator. The pin ionizes the air around it. When the electrons fall back on an atom, the excess energy is emitted as a photon, which generate the corona glow around the pin. The fuzziness of the pin is because the camera did not actually capture light reflected on the pin but rather the light emitted by the ionized light around it. – Richard Germain
Richard Germain/RPS
6/9 Calmness of Eternity
Himalayas mountains, Nepal. Gosaikunda high-mountain lake. Point of shooting – 4400m. The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy’s appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 150,000 and 200,000 light-years. It is estimated to contain 100‚ 400 billion stars
Yevhen Samuchenko
Yevhen Samuchenko/RPS
7/9 Stag beetle
Stag beetle. Light microscopy. Magnification 5x. – Viktor Sykora
Viktor Sykora/RPS
8/9 Mapping1_OxygenIb_PEM
Final Major Project for an MA Photography Falmouth University. Project: Mapping 1, Post Exertional Malaise. Mapping 1, focuses on discovering the research behind Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Through exploration of perspective, complexities, and scientific multidisciplinary collaborations, I create imagery that explains, reveals and connects us consciously to the ambiguous and unknown. – Yasmin Crawford
Yasmin Crawford/RPS
9/9 Lovell Telescope Series 1c
I have always been fascinated with the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank since I went on a school trip as a child. Here, I wanted to take a series of closer, more detailed and more honest shots than we often see. Exploring the multitude of shapes and exposing the wear of the telescope, each photo in the series stands alone or can be viewed collectively, either way, they present a powerful portrayal of machine that helps humankind in their endeavours to understand space and time. – Marge Bradshaw
Marge Bradshaw/RPS
”They were moving in the same way as many dinosaurs, but the footprints were not made by dinosaurs. Dinosaurs and their bird descendants walk on their toes. Crocodiles walk on the flat of their feet leaving clear heel impressions, like humans do.“
However, the conclusion has not been accepted totally.
”Look at any videos of living crocs and the rotation of their feet when they’re galloping: it’s outwards, not inwards towards the midline of the trackway. Just from their orientation, it looks more like some kind of dinosaurian track-maker to me. But whether it’s a croc – unfortunately, we just don’t have the fossil bones to tell us“ said Professor Phil Manning, a fossil trackway specialist who was not part of the report.
One possible alternative scenario is that the animals were moving through shallow water, using their hind legs.
The researchers said that was “implausible” though, because the animal seemed to be walking on the soles of its feet,rather than the tips of its toes.
