November 11, 2005
History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of men
Godzilla!
OK, you got me there. This has nothing to do with Blue Oyster Cult.
This is about a newly described prehistoric crocodile that sported flippers. The skull of this croc was discovered in 1996 in the Patagonia region, but was just recently described. It was nicknamed “Godzilla” because its snout and teeth more closely resembled a Tyrannosaurus rex.
A sea monster nicknamed Godzilla warns pterosaurs that this meal already is taken. This computer animation of the fierce croc appears in the December 2005 issue of National Geographic magazine.
(Photo by National Geographic)
Now that’s a scary thought, an aquatic Tyrannosaurus rex. If these were still swimming around, nobody would worry about sharks.
The fossil of a crocodyliform also known as Godzilla (left), found in Argentina’s Neuquen Basin, acquires ‘flesh’ as a digitized model.
In the same fossil beds that yielded this skull, also gave up the remains of a huge plesiosaur as well. The skull alone measured 8 feet long. Calculations based on the skull gave a body length of 42 feet.
Read the full article on the News Day website here.
In another version of this article there is a very interesting quote:
Other sea monsters like this one included a Loch Ness monster-like plesiosaur, six-meters-long. For some people close to Bariloche City in southern Argentina where it was found, it recalls “Nahuelito,” a Nahuel Huapi Lake legend.
On the Scientific American website, they cover both this story and the Gigantopithecus article from a few days ago and make the comparison to the cult classic King Kong vs. Godzilla. I really liked that movie as a kid, as I liked all of the Godzilla movies. The one thing that struck me as strange was the fact that King Kong was supposed to be 60 feet tall, and Godzilla was like 300 feet tall. Yet in this movie, they were close to the same size. I guess it wouldn’t have been very fair for King Kong to have to battle with a bipedal lixard that was 5 times his size. That would not have been nearly as realistic…
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Filed under Bigfoot Report, Breaking News, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Extinct, Fossil Finds, Lake Monsters, Living Dinosaurs, Loch Ness Monster, Sea Serpents