Monday, March 30, 2026

A University of Iowa-led research team has identified a new crocodile species that lived over 3 million years ago alongside early human ancestors like Lucy. Named Crocodylus lucivenator ("Lucy's hunter"), it had a distinctive lump on its head and would have been a predator of these early hominids in African rivers and lakes. The findings were published March 11 in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.