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Year:
2000
PLACE:
Gadoufaoua, Niger
Expedition members:
17
Fossil in focus:
Sarcosuchus imperator
Age:
middle Cretaceous, some 110 million years ago
Estimated adult length:
40 feet
Estimated weight:
ten tons
Quote:
“To visualize what can’t yet be seen—that’s the key to big fossil discoveries.”
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Go into the bush with Paul Sereno to get up close and personal with SuperCroc.
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SuperCroc
You’ll find interactive maps, models, photos of SuperCroc and bios of paleontologist Paul Sereno and herpetologist Brady Barr on our National Geographic site.
Project Exploration’s SuperCroc Site
Get inside SuperCroc’s head—and take an interactive tour of its skeleton. This site includes tons of information
about the fossil discovery, an extensive image gallery, classroom activities, and interviews with the scientists, sculptors, and artists involved
in bringing SuperCroc to life.
Dinosaur Expedition 2000
Witness paleontology in action! See a firsthand account of the challenges facing Paul Sereno and his team on their four-month expedition to the world’s largest desert and follow their tracks as they find the bones of one of the largest crocodilians that ever lived—an animal they came to call SuperCroc.
Crocodilians
How do crocodiles communicate? Hear juvenile distress calls, threatening adult hisses, and courtship bellows—and learn more about all 23 species of modern crocodilians—at this comprehensive site. Find out how you can help prevent the extinction of the highly endangered Chinese alligator.
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| Photographs by Michael Hettwer |
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This Week’s Questions. Click on a question for a full response.
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| Name: | Lee |
| Subject: | How many bones did SuperCroc have? |
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| Question 1: |
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| How many bones did SuperCroc have in its body? |
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| Sereno’s Answer: |
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| About 250. |
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| Name: | CMCC |
| Subject: | Which bones have been found? |
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| Question 2: |
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| What parts of SuperCroc have actually been found? Are there pictures that show these parts, like a blueprint showing which have been found and which are proposed? |
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| Sereno’s Answer: |
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| We have about half of the skeleton. We have a perfect skull, including the ear bone.
What we’re missing most of are the limbs. We have only a few limb bones, and some of the tail is missing. For a good
illustration of the skeleton, see www.supercroc.org/anatomy.htm. |
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| Name: | Sonia |
| Subject: | Books about SuperCroc? |
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| Question 3: |
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| Are there any books about this creature? |
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| Sereno’s Answer: |
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| There is a magazine article (“SuperCroc,” National Geographic,
December 2001), a technical science paper that describes the fossils and their
significance (Science 294: 1516-1519, November 16, 2001), and a forthcoming book on fossil crocs that includes
information on Sarcosuchus. Aimed at ages ten and up, SuperCroc and the Origin of Fossil Crocodiles, by
Christopher Sloan (with an introduction by me), will be published by National Geographic in May 2002. |
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| Name: | Jayne Horn |
| Subject: | How does media attention affect your work? |
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| Question 4: |
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| Having followed your expeditions online and on TV, I wonder how much
the media attention impinges on your ability to do good science. Does it inhibit you from doing what you really
want to do? |
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| Sereno’s Answer: |
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| Well, the technical paper mentioned above should answer your question: Generally,
publication in the journal Science is only for the top papers. For me, the value of media attention is exactly
the opposite. I use it as a positive force that will help me do the things that I want to do. Second, I try to bring the
science that we are doing to a much larger audience that needs to know about the deep history of the Earth. |
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| Name: | Reuben Muna |
| Subject: | Do awesome discoveries still await us? |
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| Question 5: |
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| How does your SuperCroc discovery affect the future? Should
we expect more awesome discoveries such as this, or are we exhausting the field? |
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| Sereno’s Answer: |
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| We found many dinosaurs in the same beds, as well as other animals. These
discoveries will be announced in the future. Other African dinosaurs remain to be discovered in the field, because the
Sahara is a huge place—almost the size of the continental United States. And it contains many areas of
rock rich in fossils. |
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