ANCIENT CROCODILE
• Tho fossilised skeleton of a crocodilelii.j reptile, which lived in the waters which once covered England, has been found near Peterborough. The discovery was made in tho Oxford clay in a brickyard at Fletton by workmen in a pit 50ft below tho eurface. , Experts have declared the hones to be those of a Pliosaurus ferox, a creature not unlike a crocodile. These reptiles have been placed by geologists and scientists in the Mesozoic era, so that, although estimates vary largely, it is probably at least a million years since it died.
Except for parks of the head and snout, the skeleton is complete. The body measures 6ft in length, and the paddles, or flippers, of which there are two pairs, are 3ft long; tho thickness of tho body was, apparently, about a foot and a-half.
One theory—supported by surrounding conditions—is that the creature was choked to death by tons of mud, brought by a powerful current into shallow waters.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 19444, 30 December 1926, Page 10
Word Count
161ANCIENT CROCODILE Evening Star, Issue 19444, 30 December 1926, Page 10
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