Have you ever wondered
what dinosaurs were afraid of?
What creature, in the Cretaceous period,
made taking a drink of water
a dangerous gamble?
I'm talking about terror crocs.
No, no, not those crocs.
Otherwise, known as The Terror Crocodile.
About 73 to 80 million years ago,
Deinosuchus ruled over marshes and swamps,
and feasted on unsuspecting dinosaurs.
Fossils have been found
showing that terror crocs
grew up to 10 m (33 ft) long.
And they likely weighed close to 5 tons (4.5 kg),
just about the size of a city bus.
They had banana-sized teeth
and jaws powerful enough to crush bones.
Many terror croc fossils have damaged teeth,
leading paleontologists to believe
that terror crocs chomped on dinosaur bones.
But scientists aren't exactly sure
if terror crocs were hunters or scavengers.
So, if they happened to roam around today,
would they hunt us?
This might surprise you,
but crocodile attacks are actually more common
than shark attacks.
And they happen around the world.
For many people,
the risk of being attacked by a crocodile
is a daily concern.
In fact, thousands of years of crocodile attacks
have contributed
to our evolutionary fear of reptiles, known as
Like our fear of spiders,
we've developed this phobia over time.
It's a natural way that we protect ourselves.
Like modern crocodiles,
the deinosuchus
was more of an opportunistic predator.
If anything happened to come into its territory,
these giant crocs would gobble it up,
no questions asked.
Most crocodiles eat, on average,
50 full meals a year.
As ectotherms,
they gather heat from their environment.
So they don't need to eat as much
as some animals to stay warm.
The Nile crocodile can eat up to half its body weight in one meal.
If the terror croc ate this much,
it could eat about 2,000 kg (5,000 lbs) in a day.
That's about 36 average-sized humans for breakfast.
Crocodiles have a unique valve in their heart.
It increases blood flow to their stomachs
through a special aorta.
This allows them to secrete gastric acid
ten times faster than most animals.
This means they can dissolve entire animals,
bones and all.
As terrifying as it would be
to see one of these giants
walking down the street,
it's more likely that they would stick to their natural habitat
of marshes, rivers, and swamps.
So, you would need to be a extra careful
about where you go fishing.
Even though terror crocs could wreak havoc
on our marshland habitats,
we'd still hunt them for their skins,
and make luxury accessories
like handbags, shoes, and belts.
Many crocodiles in Africa
and parts of Asia
are also killed for their meat.
Unfortunately, the bigger an animal is,
the more attractive it is to trophy hunters.
But with conservation efforts around the world,
many endangered species of crocodile
have managed to survive.
Now, if you think that terror crocs are scary,
how would your life change
if the megalodon still roamed our oceans?
Well, that's a story for another What If.