Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Crocodile not part of Family Tree






There has been a recent discovery of a Crocodile fossil that has made many scientists question its true relation to the Nile crocodile. In the past, this giant crocodile seemed to have been an ancestor to the current crocodiles throughout the Nile region, but that idea has changed completely. Though they were thought to be related, a vertebrate paleontologist from the University of Iowa, has found that these two specimens are completely different. The fossil that was found has a completely different jaw and teeth formation from the current  Nile crocodile. This fossil represents a entirely different species, and is something scientists have yet to determine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/08/science/a-crocodile-too-huge-to-fit-on-the-family-tree.html?_r=1&ref=science


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