Scientists find evidence of ancient Aussie 'drop crocs'

The oldest crocodile eggshells ever uncovered in Australia are shedding light on an ancient species that hunted in forests and might also have been “drop crocs”, leaping onto their prey from trees.

Found by scientists digging in clay pits near the southeast Queensland town of Murgon, the shell fragments are from now-extinct mekosuchine crocodiles.

They dominated Australia’s inland waters 55 million years ago, with modern saltwater and freshwater crocs only arriving 3.8 million years ago.

A team including researchers from UNSW Sydney and Spain’s Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Paleontology have examined the eggshell fragments from the clay pits where scientists have been digging since 1983.

Unlike today’s water-bound reptiles, mekosuchines were a group of “very weird crocodiles”,