Paul Sereno Paleontologist

“Pancake Croc”

Stats

Country, Formation, Age: Niger, Echkar Formation, Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian)

Notes

At more than 6 meters long, it boasted a flat, 1-meter-long head bristling with spiked teeth on slender jaws. The scientists think it would probably lie still for hours, waiting for unsuspecting fish to swim through its wide-open maw.

The flat-bodied PancakeCroc was the “ultimate sit-and-wait predator,” Sereno said. The animal would lie motionless and “wait for something stupid” to swim into its rail-thin, 3-foot-long (0.9-meter-long) jaws, which were lined with rows of spiky teeth.