{"id":336965,"date":"2026-03-13T09:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/336965\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T09:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:23:09","slug":"new-species-of-giant-crocodile-which-ate-human-ancestors-emerges-in-east-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/336965\/","title":{"rendered":"New species of giant crocodile which ate human ancestors emerges in east Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists at the University of Iowa have identified and named a lorry-sized crocodile which feasted on our ancestors.<\/p>\n

The ancient reptile, which lurked in Ethiopia over three million years ago, has been called Crocodylus lucivenator, meaning Lucy’s hunter.<\/p>\n

This name reflects the creature’s overlap in both time and location with the famous hominin Lucy and her species, Australopithecus afarensis.<\/p>\n

Lucy’s skeleton, unearthed in 1974, remains significant as the oldest and most complete early human ancestor discovered.<\/p>\n

Researchers published their findings on Wednesday in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.<\/p>\n

The crocodile existed between 3.4 million and 3 million years ago in the same Ethiopian region where Lucy once lived.<\/p>\n

It between 12 and 15 feet long – the size of a small lorry – with adult specimens weighing as much as 92 stone.<\/p>\n

It dominated its environment as an ambush hunter, lying submerged in waterways before striking at animals that approached to drink.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

PICTURED: The skull of Crocodylus lucivenator<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

CHRISTOPHER BROCHU<\/p>\n

A distinctive raised lump sat in the middle of its snout, a feature resembling that of American crocodiles but absent in African Nile crocodiles.<\/p>\n

Researchers believe male crocodiles used this prominent hump to attract females to mate.<\/p>\n

The species also had a snout which extended further from its nostrils than other crocodiles of that era, more closely matching modern crocodiles.<\/p>\n

Christopher Brochu, professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Iowa and the study’s corresponding author, described the creature’s dominance in its ecosystem.<\/p>\n

PREHISTORIC DISCOVERIES – READ MORE:<\/p>\n

\"Crocodylus<\/p>\n

The huge crocodile would have hunted human ancestors like this<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

TYLER STONE\/UNIVERSITY OF IOWA<\/p>\n

“It was the largest predator in that ecosystem, more so than lions and hyenas, and the biggest threat to our ancestors who lived there during that time,” Prof Brochu said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a near certainty this crocodile would have hunted Lucy’s species. Whether a particular crocodile tried to grab Lucy, we’ll never know, but it would have seen Lucy’s kind and thought: ‘Dinner.'”<\/p>\n

Brochu first examined the specimens during a 2016 visit to a museum in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.<\/p>\n

“I was just blown away because it had this really weird combination of character states,” Prof Brochu said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

PICTURED: A reconstruction of ‘Lucy’ in Prague. The prehistoric crocodile ‘would have seen Lucy’s kind and thought: “Dinner,”‘ Prof Brochu said<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

The research team analysed 121 catalogued fossil remains, mainly skulls, teeth and jaw fragments, representing dozens of individual crocodiles.<\/p>\n

These specimens were excavated from the Hadar site in Ethiopia’s Afar region, a Unesco World Heritage site since 1980 renowned for hominin discoveries.<\/p>\n

One fossil displayed partially healed wounds on its jaw, indicating a violent encounter with another crocodile.<\/p>\n

“The fossil record preserves similar injuries in extinct groups as well, so this kind of face-biting behavior can be found throughout the crocodile family tree,” says Stephanie Drumheller, teaching associate professor at the University of Tennessee and study co-author.<\/p>\n

Lucy’s hunter appeared to be the sole crocodile species inhabiting Hadar’s waters during this period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists at the University of Iowa have identified and named a lorry-sized crocodile which feasted on our ancestors.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,52701,386],"class_list":["post-336965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-sgg","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}