RE: Crocodile predator

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Bruce E Shillinglaw
>
> Could happen, too - to a _juvenile_ *Deinosuchus*. Juvenile crocs of all
> varieties are, and no doubt were, eagerly taken by predators of all kinds,
> including "dinosaurs" like the blue heron. An adult croc, however, is
> another story - and I don't think that spinosaurs had the power in their
> jaws and teeth to do the job. *Carcharodontosaurus*, on the other
> hand might
> have been able to seriously shred a croc before the croc got a chance to
> bite back - kind of the way a white shark handles seals.

One thing to not, though, is that _Carcharodontosaurus_ (unlike a great
white) had EXTREMELY narrow jaws, so it almost certainly could not grab hold
and thrash around the way a seal-munching shark does.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796