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Ancient Crocodile Ancestor Walked on Two Legs, New Study Says

VOA News

   A new study based on fossilizedfootprintssuggests aprehistoric relative
   of modern crocodiles walked on two hind legs.

   The study,published Thursday in the journalScientific Reports,describes
   howancientfossilized footprints discovered in South Koreahad
   originallybeen thought tobelongtoa pterosaur -- a flyingdinosaur --
   thathad beenwalking on two legs.

   But further analysis of theprintssuggests that theyactually belongedto
   a bipedalcrocodile, acreature that walked on two legs because it was
   semi-adapted to land.

   This is the first evidence from this time period of a bipedal
   crocodylomorph, a branching, diverse group of animals that includes
   crocodilians and their extinct relatives.The researchers named the new
   speciesBatrachopusgrandis.

   Thefootprintswere18 to 24 centimeters long,
   suggestingthatthecreatures'bodies were almost 3 meterslong. They seem
   to have been left only by the back limbs,showing a clear heel-to-toe
   walking pattern.

   The well-preserved fossils, discovered in South Korea's Jinju
   Formation, date to the lower Cretaceous period,which spanned 145
   million to 105 million years ago. A 2015 study describes at least one
   instance of a bipedal crocodylomorph believed to have lived
   inthesoutheastern U.S. state of North Carolina 230 million years ago.

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