The apex predators that roamed the earth 230 million years ago had a much weaker bite than previously thought, and likely couldn't crunch through bone to consume the entirety of their kills.
, paleontologists from the University of Birmingham have recreated the original skull anatomy of Saurosuchus, a Late Triassic reptile that is the distant relative of modern crocodiles. Saurosuchus was thought to be andue to its size and diet, standing at between 5–8 meters in length and weighing over 250 kg.
Dr. Jordan Bestwick, vertebrate palaeobiologist at the University of Birmingham and corresponding author of the paper said,"We found that Saurosuchus actually had an incredibly weak bite for its size and thus predated animals in very different ways compared to later evolving dinosaurs.
In contrast to later dinosaurs, the feeding behavior of Saurosuchus is likely due to a weak bite and a more rectangularshape. Also these earlier reptiles had thinner bones in their noses compared to the later Allosaurus.
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