Fossils Of 267-Million-Year-Old Crowned Crocodile Dinosaur Discovered In The Ural Mountains

MessageToEagle.com – Fossils of a crowned crocodile dinosaur have been discovered in the Ural Mountains. While this area is rich in fossils, it is the first time a prehistoric ‘crowned crocodile’ has been located in this region and scientists now hope they can locate the entire skeleton.

It is without doubt an exciting discovery potentially leading to new knowledge about this long-gone species.

The fossils of Estemmenosuchus uralensis were unearthed near Ochyor town, on a steep slope of Kokul Mountain, about 475 kilometers northwest of Yekaterinburg.

This prehistoric lugubrious creature walked the planet 267 million years ago, in the Middle Permian era.

Scientists found the collarbone and a scapula of an early omnivorous therapsid best known for horns shaped like a moose’s antlers.

Two species of this idiosyncratic creature have been identified – Estemmenosuchus uralensis and Estemmenosuchus mirabilis, both from the Perm region of the Urals. They differ in size, shape of the skull, and shape of the horns.

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It had a ‘sprawling posture and could reach a body length of more than 3 metres (10 ft) – with a large head. The skull was ‘long and massive, up to 65 cm (26 in) in length’.

There were several sets of large horns  growing upward and outward from the sides and top of the head.

“Mountain Kokui is known for finds of large numbers of fossilised Permian conifers, yet the remains of dinosaurs had not been found there before. The hope is that there is a full skeleton,” Head of the Museum of the Permian Geological Period Konstantin Dobryanskikh, in Perm, said.

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