Related Articles<\/p>\n
Not having found one with hominin bones in its abdomen, we can’t know that the lucivenator ate our ancestors but can assume it would if one was available. The hominins had to come to water sources to drink. They had no choice, the authors point out. This crocodile could have played a role in their daily life.<\/p>\n
The dearly departed reptile ranged from four to five meters long (12 to 15 feet) in adulthood and weighed around 275 to 550 kilos (600 to 1,212 pounds).<\/p>\n
![\"349939\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/65046518.JPG\" "\\"A")
Close<\/p>\n
A reconstruction of Lucy, potential croc fodder and once considered the earliest human ancestor, Museum of Evolution, Warsaw Credit: GregGrabowski\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
A reconstruction of Lucy, potential croc fodder and once considered the earliest human ancestor, Museum of Evolution, Warsaw Credit: GregGrabowski\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
The biggest crocodiles<\/a> today are the salties in Australia and Southeast Asia. The longest known to date was a capture named Lolong who was 6.17 meters or 20 feet, 3 inches long when he died in 2013, of unsuitable conditions in captivity.<\/p>\n Unlike Lucy, who coexisted in the Afar with other australopithecine species and apparently other hominins<\/a> too, the lucivenator may have existed in glorious speciesist isolation. There were at least three other crocodile species in the Eastern Rift Valley at the time, but it was the dominant \u2013 or only \u2013 crocodile in its neck of the woods, the researchers suggest.<\/p>\n “The Hadar Formation [of fossils] preserves only one crocodile species. But at least three crocodylian species, possibly four, are known from the Turkana Basin during the Pliocene and early Pleistocene,” the team writes: Palaeoafrican Crocodylus, Euthecodon, and something related to Mecistops. <\/p>\n They don’t think the results are an artifact of sampling bias, where one only finds a tiny fraction of fossils \u2013 they think that for some reason, where lucivenator reigned, it did so supreme. They cannot explain why.<\/p>\n The crocodile’s peril<\/p>\n What was the lucievenator like? The paper goes into great length to explain why it is a distinct species and its probable relationships within paleo-crocodilia.<\/p>\n The lucivenator featured an elongated snout with a protuberance that is oddly reminiscent of modern American crocodiles but not African ones. That probably evolved for the same reason as tail in the peacock and the relatively large penis<\/a> in the human \u2013 for display purposes. In other words, Lucy’s hunter had a bulbous nose to attract the ladies.<\/p>\n “You see this in some modern crocodiles,” said coauthor Christopher Brochu, an expert on ancient Crocodilia. “The male will lower his head down a little bit to a female to show it off.”<\/p>\n Could the crocodile and the hominin of the Hadar have existed in a state of mutual suspicion? Did the hunting go both ways?<\/p>\n
![\"\u05d0\u05d5\u05e1\u05d8\u05e8\u05dc\u05d5\u05e4\u05d9\u05ea\u05e7\u05d5\u05e1](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/65046519.JPG\" "\\"The")