The skull is thought to be over 200 million years old. According to a study done on the priceless find, the skull belonged to a beastly creature which hid out in the swamps of West Texas during the Triassic period. The species is believed to be around 17-foot or 5.2 meters long, having a 2-foot or 0.6 meter snout.
Researchers claim that the fossils of the creature are from a brand new species never before discovered by man. It is said to be an unknown kind of Phytosaur, which is extinct but at one point in time hunted fish, with its primary preying spots being near shallow edges of rivers, lakes, and other small bodies of water.
“They had basically the same lifestyle as the modern crocodile, by living in and around the water, eating fish, and whatever animals came to the margins of the rivers and lakes,” study researcher Bill Mueller, assistant curator of paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University, said in a statement.
Paleontologists have decided to name the new find Machaeroprosopus lottorum after the Lott family, which were in possession of the Texas Panhandle ranch during the time when the skulls were found in 2001.
“We found them in an area we’d been excavating in,” Mueller said, “I think we’ve gotten four skulls out of that area already. Doug Cunningham found this specimen, and then we dug it up. When he found it, just the very back end of the skull was sticking out of the ground. The rest was buried. We excavated it and brought it into the museum to finish preparation.”
Two skulls were found, though one of them labeled as male was not well kept. However, a couple of weeks down the road another skull was unearthed and believed to be that of a female.
“It was really well preserved with the teeth and everything,” Doug Cunningham, field research assistant at the Museum of Texas Tech University and co-author of the study, said, “Finding one with teeth is pretty rare. It was so odd, but when they come out of the ground, you have a long way to go to actually see what you have because they’re still covered in matrix. We were all kind of in awe of it. It had this long, skinny snout. It was quite a bit different. It took me years to get it prepped and ready. At the time, I was working full-time and I did that on my days off.”
The creatures were found in the Cooper Canyon formation in Garza, County, Texas. In the here and now, the area is dry but, back in the Triassic times, there was a forest and lake where the species did their hunting. The scientists’ discovery has been published in the journal Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Voice of Russia, Techtimes.com
Scientists discover remains of swamp monster in Texas
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