The crocodile is a fearsome creature. When you see one in person it is hard to believe they are a thing. They are immensely powerful creatures, and in many, they bring back images of old dinosaurs. However, like most creatures in this world, crocodiles have changed and adapted over the years. Their fossilized remains, though, point to some very intriguing previous experiences. For example, a recent discovery is that the crocodile might once have walked on two legs, not four.
That sounds terrifying – like a big scaly, lizard grizzly bear. Fossil tracks suggest that they used to walk on two legs, which in itself would be quite an interesting image. It would make them even bigger, and yes, it would make them look far more like a T-Rex than they might already.
The discovery was made in South Korea when an old ancestor of the crocodile was believed to have been walking around like a human. While we highly doubt it was wearing a pair of jeans and boots, it would have been far more human-like than the present crocs that we get in the world today.
If these findings are genuine then we are looking at an animal that has evolved from being a bipedal creature to a quadrupedal creature. Of course, skepticism in the community means that many are saying that these tracks are not related to a croc – that something else made those marks. However, the tracks are so well-preserved that many believe they were 100% made by Batracophus, which is an ancestor to the croc.
This would not be the first time that crocs have been suggested to be bipedal, either. It was suggested many years ago thanks to skeletal reconstructions but was usually dismissed as silly. The footprints that have been found, though, are the first ‘proof’ we have ever had that once upon a time crocodiles – or their predecessors – walked around on two legs, not four.