Ancient ‘Drop Crocs’ Once Hunted from Trees, Scientists Discover in Australia
55-million-year-old crocodile eggshells reveal clues about a long-extinct tree-climbing predator
- Scientists discovered 55-million-year-old crocodile eggshells in Queensland, believed to belong to “drop crocs”
- The fossils, linked to the mekosuchine species, are the oldest crocodile eggs ever found in Australia and predate modern crocodile species by over 50 million years.
- The find was made at the Murgon clay pit, one of Australia’s oldest fossil sites, which has also produced evidence of ancient songbirds, mammals, frogs, and snakes.
Scientists in Australia have uncovered the country’s oldest known crocodile eggshells — believed to belong to ancient “drop crocs,” tree-climbing crocodiles that may have ambushed prey from above.
The 55-million-year-old fossils were discovered in the backyard of a sheep farm in Queensland, according to a study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The eggs are thought to have belonged to mekosuchines, an extinct group of crocodiles that lived in inland waterways when Australia was still connected to Antarctica and South America.
Co-author Professor Michael Archer of the University of New South Wales said the creatures likely hunted in a unique way: “Some of these ‘drop crocs’ may have behaved like leopards — dropping out of trees onto unsuspecting prey.”
Mekosuchine crocodiles, which could grow up to five metres long, existed millions of years before modern saltwater and freshwater crocodiles appeared in Australia. The eggshell fragments, discovered decades ago, were only recently analysed with the help of Spanish researchers, confirming their link to the ancient predators.
The site where the discovery was made, a clay pit in Murgon about 270 km northwest of Brisbane, is one of Australia’s oldest fossil locations. It was once a lush forest teeming with early songbirds, frogs, snakes, and mammals related to South American species.
Dr Michael Stein, a co-author of the study, noted that Murgon continues to yield remarkable finds: “This forest hosted some of the world’s oldest songbirds and bats — and these ‘drop crocs’ add yet another fascinating chapter to Australia’s prehistoric story.”
Prof Archer added that the team plans to continue excavations, hoping to uncover more evidence of these unusual, semi-arboreal crocodiles. “After all these years,” he said, “we’re still only scratching the surface of the incredible ancient world buried beneath that old sheep paddock.”
