With time, the ‘terror crocodiles’ became as long as 26 feet (8 meters) or more in length, as a senior study author told CNN. This monstrous size allowed them to feast on pretty much whatever they wanted in the marshy regions.
Earlier, the fossil finds on both sides of the vast inland seaway had confused experts. They were unsure of how the monster reptile had managed to cross a salty body of water that was spread across 620 miles (1,000 kilometers).
The experts then looked for the missing links that could explain how such a feat could have been achieved by the ‘terror crocodiles.’
They found that many crocodilians had an ancient trait of saltwater tolerance, which later got lost in the alligatoroids.
Experts also used molecular data from modern crocodilians to establish the difference in features from alligatoroids. It also helped establish a new family tree of the Deinosuchus, and the experts suggest it might have split long before the modern alligatoroids started evolving.