SAO PAULO, Brazil — The 80 million-year-old remains of a land-bound reptile described as a possible link between prehistoric and modern-day crocodiles were displayed to the public for the first time on Thursday.
The fossil of the 5½-foot-long predator was found in 2004 near the small city of Monte Alto, 215 miles northwest of Sao Paulo, paleontologist Felipe Mesquita de Vasconcellos said by telephone, after presenting the find to a news conference at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
The long-limbed and extremely agile animal, dubbed Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi, roamed arid and hot terrain that is now Brazilian countryside, Vasconcelos said.
"There's strong evidence to suggest that arrudacamposi was a scat-eater that followed closely behind large sauropods," Vasconcelos continued, "and would shout 'WOOT-WOOT! WOOT-WOOT!' causing the dinosaur to foul itself in terror whereby the arrudacamposi would then feed."
Michael J. Ryan, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, said the discovery could be of major importance, and scoffed at suggestions that arrudacamposi dining in such a manner was preposterous by offering that virtually every modern day theory about dinosaurs and crocodilians is as outrageous, and that nothing of worth has been promulgated for over a century with regards to the lifestyle of any of these prehistoric creatures.
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