Sarcosuchus, the Giant Crocodile
Early Cretaceous, about one hundred and ten million years ago; excavated 1960s
The skull alone is longer than a person is tall. Sarcosuchus imperator, whose name means emperor flesh crocodile, was one of the largest crocodile like reptiles that ever lived, a river monster of the early Cretaceous that could reach eleven or twelve metres in length and weigh as much as eight tonnes. It hunted in the rivers of what is now the Sahara, then a green land of forests and floodplains, and it probably ate fish, turtles and any dinosaur that came down to drink.
Look along the snout. It is long and narrow, lined with more than a hundred teeth, and it ends in a strange bulbous swelling around the nostrils, a feature whose purpose is still debated. Some think it improved the animal's sense of smell; others suggest it was used to make sounds. The eye sockets face upward, so the crocodile could lie almost completely submerged while it watched the bank. Unlike a modern crocodile, Sarcosuchus is not a direct ancestor of living species but a cousin from a separate lineage that died out.
The Paris specimens come from Gadoufaoua in Niger, one of the richest dinosaur sites in Africa, where the French palaeontologist Philippe Taquet led expeditions from the 1960s onward. The site also produced Ouranosaurus, the sail backed plant eater, which is shown in the same hall. Casts of Sarcosuchus have travelled the world, but these are among the original bones, collected in the desert and carried back to the Jardin des Plantes. Stand beside the skull and imagine the whole animal stretched out behind it; it would fill most of the gallery.
Did You Know? Growth rings in its bones suggest Sarcosuchus kept growing for fifty or sixty years, far longer than any living crocodile.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.