Scientists have found the oldest known eggshells in Australia that may belong to “drop crocs” – creatures that climb trees to hunt prey below.
The discovery of 55-million-year-old eggshells was made in the backyard of sheep in Queensland with the findings published in the journal paleontology.
Eggells belong to a long-lived group of crocodiles known as Mekosuchines, which lived in inland waters when Australia was part of Antarctica and South America.
Co-author pro Michael Archer said “Drop Crocs” was a “Bizarre idea” but some “probably hunted like leopards in any tree without shelter for dinner”.
Prof Archer, a Palaeontologist at the University of New South Wales, says crocodiles of Mekosuchine – with 55 million churches in Alauts past, before their modern salt water and before their modern salt arrived in Australia about 3.8 million years ago.
“Drop Croc” eggs were found decades ago but were recently investigated with the help of scientists in Spain.
“It’s a compelling idea,” says Prof Profter of the “drop crocs”, but others may be “terrestrial forest hunters”.
The findings are in addition to the discoveries of younger Mekosucine fossils – found in a 25-million-year-old deposit in another part of Queensland.
“Some are also at least partly semi-arboreal ‘drop crocs’,” said Prof Proult.
Since the early 1980s, he has been part of a team of scientists excavating a clay pit in Murgon, a small regional town about 270km (168 miles) northwest of Brisbane.
For decades, it has been known as one of the oldest fossil sites in Australia as it was once surrounded by a lush forest.
“This forest also has the most human songs in the world, the first frogs and snakes in Australia, as well as a small number of bats,” Dr Michael Stein, an author of the report, said.
Prof Archer remembers how in 1983, he and some other colleagues were driving to Murgon, parked the car on the road and asked if we could dig their yard”.
“After explaining the prehistoric treasures that could be placed under their sheep paddocks and that the shells shells were found in the area, they grinned and said ‘.
“And, clearly, from the many interesting animals we have found in this deposit since 1983, we know that with more surprises there are more surprises to come.”