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Thanks to Max and Pranav for their suggestions this week! We're going to learn about some crocodylomorphs and a few other ancient non-dinosaur reptiles.\n\nFurther reading:\n\nMammal-like crocodile fossil found in East Africa, scientists report\n\nAncient crocodiles walked on two legs like dinosaurs\n\nFossil Footprints Help Uncover the Mysteries of Bipedal Crocodiles\n\nFossil mystery solved: super-long-necked reptiles lived in the ocean, not on land\n\nKaprosuchus had TEETH:\n\n\n\nAnatosuchus earned its name "duck crocodile":\n\n\n\nAncient bipedal croc footprints (picture taken from link above):\n\n\n\nTanystropheus had a super long neck:\n\n\n\nShow transcript:\n\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\n\nThis week we\u2019re going back in time to learn about some prehistoric reptiles that aren\u2019t dinosaurs. Most are crocodylomorphs, which Pranav suggested a while back, but not all. Thanks to Pranav and Max for their suggestions this week! Max even made some clay models of two of these animals and sent me pictures, which was amazing! I have some really talented listeners.\n\nPranav and Max both wanted to know about kaprosuchus, also called the boar crocodile. The boar croc lived around 95 million years ago and probably grew nearly 20 feet long, or 6 meters, although all we know about it right now comes from a single nearly complete fossilized skull. The skull was found in Niger, a country in West Africa, and only described in 2009.\n\nThe boar croc gets its name from its teeth. It had lots of teeth, because it was a crocodyliform, although not actually an ancestral crocodile. It was related to modern crocs, though. Three sets of its teeth were especially long and large and projected out of its mouth much farther than ever found in any croc or croc relative, with one pair of teeth so big the upper jaw had little grooves for them to fit into so it could actually close its mouth. The teeth look like boar tusks, especially warthog tusks.\n\nThe boar croc also had some other differences from other croc relatives. The tip of its snout is unusually heavy, and some researchers think it might have had a keratin sheath over it. It might have used its heavy snout as a battering ram, possibly to stun prey before grabbing it with its huge teeth. It most likely hunted on land instead of in the water, since its eyes were lower on its head than crocs that hunt in water. Modern crocodiles and their relations mostly have eyes at the top of the head, which allows them to stay submerged except for their eyes. Whether it hunted in water or on land, though, the boar croc definitely killed and ate small dinosaurs, or maybe not so small dinosaurs.\n\nThe boar croc also had some horn-like projections on the back of its head. I don\u2019t want to alarm you, because this animal went extinct millions and millions of years ago, but this thing was basically a dragon.\n\nAnatosuchus was another crocodylomorph whose fossils have been found in Niger, but it\u2019s much smaller and weirder than you\u2019d expect. It was a tiny little thing, estimated to grow only a little more than 2 feet long, or 70 cm, and it was lightly built with relatively long legs for a croc relation, although it was still smaller than a cat. Its small teeth curve backwards but its snout has a little pointy projection at the front, although its head is broad and flat so that from above, its snout looks kind of like a duck\u2019s bill. That\u2019s why it\u2019s sometimes called the duck crocodile. It lived around 145 million to 100 million years ago. Researchers think it may have waded in shallow water to catch small animals like fish and frogs, something like a heron.\n\nAround 105 million years ago, another small croc relation lived in what is now Tanzania in East Africa. It was first discovered in 2008 and has been named Pakasuchus, which means cat crocodile. It was even smaller than the duck crocodile, only 20 inches long, or 50 cm, with long legs and a delicate build.