Carolina butcher', the giant, upright crocodile that roamed the earth before dinosaurs

Washington: A new species found in North Carolina is one of the oldest and largest crocodile relatives ever known. Back before dinosaurs were the big bads of the world, Carnufex carolinensis ruled the North American continent. At 2.7 metres long and walking on its hind legs, this top land predator with a long skull and blade-like teeth roamed 230 million years ago. Researchers described the species (which translates to "Carolina Butcher") for the first time on Thursday in Scientific Reports. Its bones may have been found in a quarry, but back in the Butcher's day North Carolina was a lush, warm, wet region just beginning to pull away from the supercontinent of Pangea. And in that region, it seems, an upright crocodile roamed. The Carnufex carolinensis fossil was actually discovered a decade ago, but its bones have been sitting in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences ever since. "When we got the bones out and prepared them, we found out that it was actually a really cool species," said Lindsay Zanno, assistant professor at North Carolina State University and lead author of the new research paper. "As one of the earliest and oldest crocodylomorphs, Carnufex was a far cry from living crocodiles. It was an agile, terrestrial predator that hunted on land," he said. "Carnufex predates the group that living crocodiles belong to." Most croc relatives from that time were smaller in size and seemed lower on the food chain. They were about the same size - and threat to prey - as a fox. But at 2.7 metres long - a height it stretched to fully by walking on two legs - the Carolina Butcher would have been one of the fiercest animals around, if not the very fiercest.READ MORE-http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/carolina-butcher-the-giant-upright-crocodile-that-roamed-the-earth-before-dinosaurs-20150