Ancient Crocodiles Once Feasted on Giant Tortoises
Today, Aldabra Atoll, an island in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar and Tanzania, is a predator-free paradise for more than 100,000 giant tortoises. Gone are the seafarers who over-hunted them to near extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries. Gone too are the large crocodiles that may have preyed upon them in prehistoric times, as a new study suggests.
Dennis Hansen, an ecologist from the University of Zurich, was exploring the coral atoll and its azure lagoon, part of the Seychelles, when he came across fossils that intrigued him. They included parts of a giant tortoise shell with circular bite marks and the jaw of an ancient crocodylian. From the finds, he and a colleague concluded that some 90,000 to 125,000 years ago, the ancient crocodiles may have feasted upon the giant tortoises of Aldabra.
The finding, which was published Tuesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science, may offer new insights into the ancient past of the world�s most numerous giant tortoise and the threats it once faced from predators.
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Photo from Dennis Hansen/University of Zurich, Switzerland .
