Distribution:
Deinosuchus inhabited the rivers of Laramidia. Laramidia was an island continent which existed where the western coast of modern North America is today.
Time Period:
They lived during the Upper Cretaceous period, 80-73 million years ago. This was the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era. Until this time the continents which exist today formed one super continent called Pangaea. Although it had already begun to separate during the Triassic and Jurassic periods, the Cretaceous period saw Pangaea spread across the planet’s surface and form new land masses. The change caused Earth’s climate to slowly cool and the continents and oceans familiar to us today first started to form.
Size:
They were 10 meters (35 ft) long and weighed 5 metric tons.
Diet:
This carnivore would have fed on dinosaurs and turtles. It resembled the modern-day alligator but far larger. They had very powerful teeth and jaws which could crunch through the bones of their prey and turtle shells. They would have been specialists in attacking armoured dinosaurs which couldn’t be tackled by lesser carnivores. There are even Tyrannosaurus-Rex fossils with Deinosucus teeth marks in them. This shows what a capable and fearsome predator it would have been. Deinosuchus stuck from the water, dragged its prey in with it, drowned it and then ate it.
Interesting Facts:
The name Deinosuchus means ‘terrible crocodile’ and is in the species Crocodilia. This shows how little modern crocodiles have needed to change to survive over the last eighty million years. It’s thought that they may have lived up to the age of 50. They would have grown by roughly one foot each year until they were about 35 years of age. It’s estimated that the largest of them could have grown up to 12 feet long. Although, 10 ft would have been a more common size for the species.