I'm of the opinion that Deinosuchus was likely to be the largest crocodilian to ever walk the Earth. Only with Purussaurus being its closest competitor. Other species just don't seem to come near the sheer weight and bulk those two species have. I believe that while Purussaurus is gargantuan, it was likely to be the largest animal of its environment, with little to no competition or necessity for it to be any larger than it was. While Deinosuchus was a giant living among giants, it would grow to be as big as physically possible in order to take the widest variety of prey in its ecosystem, the Laramidian species being particularly large in order to predate on the larger animals from that side of the Western Interior Seaway.
Do ya think there might have been any environmental or ecological factors that specifically drove Deinosuchus to evolve its immense size, compared to Purussaurus, which seemed to dominate its own niche without similar pressures?
@@jurawild In short, the dinosaurs. No other animals in the entire history of the Earth have attained such massive size as the dinosaurs did. Often when there are commonly very large herbivores in a natural environment, there will be some kind of predator to follow suit and continue an ecological "arms race" of sorts. If there's a resource that is plentiful and has little to no competition for it, often something will fill a niche to exploit it. While around that time Tyrannosaurs were still evolving and taking the roles of a fully terrestrial apex predator. Deinosuchus would be the one to fill a waterfront ambush predator, and from its ancestors it ballooned in size as a result of taking on the common prey of the time. Not to mention the massive aquatic fauna of the time that it likely could have eaten as well.
Just so you know, that isn't a barrel roll but instead is more related to a aileron roll. Barrel roll is called that because you do a loop that follow the outline of a cylinder, or a barrel shape. An aileron roll is one that you rotate the aircraft so that the nose is the center point for the rotational axis. Also I would like to add that the type specimen of appalachiosaurus has evidence of a failed deinosuchus attack when it was younger.
Unlike the other crocodile-like reptiles that have come and gone, Deinosuchus was a true crocodilian, but is more related to alligators than to crocodiles.
Thank you! Really glad I’m reawakening a love for natural history 😊 oooo I can’t say I have a favourite but definitely a top 3 in no particular order: Fred Weirum, Emily Willoughby and Mark P. Witton 😃
@@dino-gen I still think Raul Martin's "Deinosuchus attacks Albertosaurus" for National Geographic 2009 is the best paleoart work I've ever seen, it is so realistic and dynamics - you can actually see Deinosuchus clamps its jaws on the dinosaur.
Distractingly cute... Watching these clip out of sequence makes you notice the frequent hair style changes, parted left to right and back, shaggy and long, short and spiky.... But always distractingly cute.... What an educator ‼️🤔😀👍🏻
We probably know only a fraction of life on earth from the Fossil record. So, I think there may have been even larger animals than what we are currently aware of.
I thought you would mention Fadeno's work, not published but quite interesting and solid IMO where he estimates specimens CM 963 and TM 43632-1 could possibly indicate animals 13-14 m TL, 12-15 t, with bite forces arond 130Kn. I recall have read some comments that some neck bones in Deinosuchus were more robust than those in Purussaurus. If all of this is correct, this might make it the true king of the crocodilians. Nice work as always, I laughed at the Hatcher and Schwimmer joke.😂 I see a parallel between Deinosuchus taking the apex predator position in a dinosaurs dominated environment and the Otodus lineage which became successful in cetaceans dominated ecosystems.
Deinosuchus was the king of crocodylians, 10-12 m long and 5-8.5 t. I recommend the book "King of Crocodylians: Paleobiology of Deinosuchus" by Prof. David R. Schwimmer, it is from 2002 and I hope he will write an updated additions, especially after Brochu and Cossett paper from 2020.
After seeing their domination of Albertosaurus in Prehistoric Park, Deinosuchus are not a species to be sneezed at. Quite interesting that these giants didn't live past 73 million years ago. If remains are found in the Maastrichtian, that would make for a truly terrifying time...
Deinosuchus would be the terrified one lmao, it would have to contend with mosasaurus and tylosaurus much bigger and way more deadly in the water than deinosuchus, tylosaurus especially has been known to crack skulls open on other mosasurs. And the land wouldn't be safe either, giant herds of edmontosaurus are to big to take down and triceratops surely wouldn't mind goring a croc stuck in land. And deinosuchus would have a much harder time when the tyrannosaurs they used to feed on are now 10 tons with a bite to match.
Dinosuchus was not the biggest of em all. That was Willbur. Everyone feared him. Willbur was a walking death sentence. But very chill, if you left him alone. And yes, Willbur was the most biggest of all the huge ones. Willbur - he shall be remembered.
Crocodiles have the biggest biteforce today as well.. Yet they often lose to big cats.. tigers . I think Crocs are only a match to big predators if they can hide and explode.. But one on one if they both see each other and the opponent can avoid being bitten, they usually seem helpless.. I don't think it would have stood a chance against a T-Rex
This is probably more than likely the biggest one ever. But is this the same prehistoric animal as the Super Croc that often fought against the Titan Boa? Or is the Super Croc just another similar species?
If you look at crocodiles of today and how you can get outliers which are ridiculously big compared to the average, I think it's safe to say that deinosuchus would have had individuals who were massively huge when compared to the specimens discovered. In the grand scheme of things, it's a minor miracle that a prehistoric corpse gets fossilised in the first place so the chances that above average individuals are discovered is so miniscule.
GAWD I hope it was the biggest suchian ever. I'm havin' severe anxiety knowin' it ever existed, if somethin' bigger existed I'll never ever sleep again
Was it the biggest crocodilian in Earth's history? Very likely not. It already has some serious contenders, and who knows what we haven't discovered yet and what species didn't leave any fossils.
