The Pit that Solves a Murder

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The Pit that Solves a Murder - crocodile attack 4.2Million years ago


The bone shown below is a limb bone from a kangaroo that lived 4.2 million years ago.
Notice that the bone is broken on one end and has a circular pit near the socket a the other end.
It was unearthed by Earth Science Australia at a geological site that was in earlier times a plunge pool at the base of a waterfall.
Megafauna roamed Australia at this time, snakes the size of telephone poles, giant kangaroos, wombats and huge browsing and grazing diprotodontids.




flat_faced_kangaroo


Creatures would come to the pool for a drink but there was danger lurking there - huge crocodiles!

crocodile_teeth

So we know the fate of this kangaroo - murdered by a crocodile!

indent of crocodile tooth

In the image below you can see the stress fractures caused by the enormous pressure of the crocodile's jaw!



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