Indian palaeontologists have unearthed one of many largest fossils of an extinct reptilian creature that was the oldest ancestor of modern-day crocodiles however disappeared from the Earth practically 200 million years in the past.

The fossil found in Madhya Pradesh is a brand new genus and species within the household of phytosaurs, semi-aquatic creatures that migrated alongside the shoreline of the prehistoric Tethys Ocean within the child planet and inhabited a number of continents lengthy earlier than the Jurassic period reign of the dinosaurs.

The fossil recovered from a rocky geological terrain referred to as Tiki formation represents a sort of phytosaurs distinctive to India and its presence subsequent to juvenile fossils gives the primary proof of parental care behaviour amongst phytosaurs.

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“Phytosaurs and crocodiles had a common ancestor. Phytosaur is the most primitive creature in the family while the crocodile is the most modern one. The fossil that we discovered has a length of 8.4 mt and it is one of the biggest in the world,” fossil hunter Debajit Datta, previously with Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur informed DH.

Datta and his supervisor Sanghamitra Ray from IIT Kharagpur, collected greater than 1,000 fossil bones from the location in Rewa basin.

A cautious evaluation spanning over 5 years resulted not solely within the identification of the species as a novel one, but in addition the invention of the creature’s parental behaviour as fossils of 21 animals – many juveniles and some adults – have been noticed in the identical spot.

Named Colossosuchus techniensis, the traditional predator had a number of distinctive options in its cranium, enamel, jawline and nasal areas. Fossils of the identical creature have additionally been present in one other web site in Pranhita-Godavari basin in Telangana. The species has been named after IIT Kharagpur.

Most of the ‘croc-line’ ancestors don’t look very like crocodiles, however phytosaurs have been a particular exception. With brief legs, huge, heavy our bodies with rows of armoured scales, lengthy tails, and lengthy toothy snouts, they seemed similar to residing crocs.

The identify, nonetheless, was a misnomer as phytosaur means ‘plant lizard’. Such a mistake crept into the scientific lexicon as a result of the primary phytosaur fossil found was not very effectively preserved and the scientist who discovered it thought that mud casts of the tooth sockets have been really the enamel.

Since these supposed enamel have been blunt and rounded, he thought the animal should be a plant eater, though the phytosaurs in actuality had sharp, cone-shaped enamel like crocodiles, and so they ate fish and different animals.

Most of the primitive phytosaurs disappeared between 228-225 million years in the past. Those who survived that three million yr lengthy extinction section, additionally vanished nearly 200 million years in the past when the period of dinosaurs dawned.

Datta who at the moment works on the Department of Earth Sciences in IIT Roorkee, stated their research additionally demonstrated how the phytosaurs migrated following coastal routes and advanced additional within the Indian subcontinent. The fossils present in India had the identical distinctive signatures suggesting one specific group of phytosaurs was current within the subcontinent.

The research has been printed within the Papers of Palaeontology.