'Godzilla' monster lurked in ancient seas

[C1ay]

A new, virtually complete fossil skull has revealed that an ancient marine relative of the crocodile was a very strange sea monster indeed.

 

The 80-centimetre-long fossil, discovered in Argentina, shows that Dakosaurus andiniensis had the massive and terrifying skull of a predatory dinosaur. Previously known only from bone fragments, the animal was nearly 4 metres (12 feet) long, with four flippers and the tail of a fish...

 

...the new find is stunningly different from Dakosaurus fossils found previously in Europe, and other marine crocodyliforms. Instead of a flat head and long thin snout, D. andiniensis had a head about 30 centimetres high, a short, stout snout, a powerful jaw and serrated cutting teeth like those of predatory dinosaurs. It probably ate large marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, says Diego Pol of Ohio State University.

 

Story at NewScientist....