Question 1

How do you say Purussaurus?

Accepted Answer

Purussaurus is pronounced poo-roo-SOH-russ. Break it into three chunks: 'poo' like the word you know, then 'roo' like a kangaroo, then 'SOH-russ' with the emphasis on the SOH. The name comes from the Purus River in Brazil, so the 'Purus' part just sounds like the river's name said out loud. Once you say it a few times, it rolls off the tongue pretty easily.

Question 2

What does Purussaurus mean?

Accepted Answer

Purussaurus means 'Purus River lizard' or 'Purus River reptile.' The first part of the name honors the Purus River in the Brazilian Amazon, which is where the very first fossils of this creature were discovered back in 1892. The second part, 'saurus,' comes from Ancient Greek and means lizard or reptile. It is the same ending you find in names like dinosaurus, brachiosaurus, and hundreds of other prehistoric animals.

Question 3

How big was Purussaurus?

Accepted Answer

Purussaurus was enormous. The largest estimates put it at over 41 feet long, which is longer than a school bus, and up to 8,000 kilograms in weight, which is heavier than a full-grown African elephant. Its skull alone was nearly 5.6 feet long, taller than most adult humans. These estimates come from comparing its skull bones to those of living crocodilians and scaling up from the proportions we can measure.

Question 4

Was Purussaurus a dinosaur?

Accepted Answer

No, Purussaurus was not a dinosaur at all. It was a caiman, which is a type of crocodilian closely related to the alligators and crocodiles alive today. It lived during the Miocene epoch, which started around 23 million years ago, long after the non-bird dinosaurs had gone extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago. Crocodilians and dinosaurs are both reptiles, but they are very different branches of the reptile family tree.

Question 5

How strong was Purussaurus's bite?

Accepted Answer

Scientists have calculated that Purussaurus could bite with a force of approximately 69,000 newtons, which is almost unimaginably powerful. To put that in context, a great white shark bites with around 10,000 newtons, and a lion with roughly 1,800 newtons. A 2015 biomechanical study used computer modeling of the jaw muscles based on the fossil skull to come up with this estimate. That bite force would make Purussaurus one of the strongest biters in the entire history of vertebrate animals on Earth.

Question 6

What did Purussaurus eat?

Accepted Answer

Purussaurus was a top predator that likely ate almost anything it could catch near or in the water. Its menu probably included giant prehistoric turtles, large fish, early ancestors of tapirs and capybaras, and ground sloths that came down to drink from rivers. Some researchers believe it could have taken prey as large as primitive relatives of horses and other Miocene megafauna. Like modern crocodilians, it was almost certainly an ambush predator that grabbed prey at the water's edge and dragged it under.

Question 7

Where did Purussaurus live?

Accepted Answer

Purussaurus lived across a huge range in the Americas, with fossils found in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and Argentina. During the Miocene, much of South America was covered by a massive inland sea of swamps, lakes, and rivers sometimes called the Pebas Mega-Wetland System, and Purussaurus was the ruler of those waterways. The Purus River in Brazil, which gave the animal its name, was right in the heart of this prehistoric wetland paradise.

Question 8

Is Purussaurus the biggest crocodile ever?

Accepted Answer

Purussaurus is one of the strongest contenders for the title of largest crocodilian ever, competing with Sarcosuchus from the Cretaceous of Africa and Deinosuchus from North America. With estimates of up to 8,000 kilograms and over 12 meters in length, some scientists consider Purussaurus brasiliensis to be the heaviest crocodilian that ever lived. The debate continues as new fossils are found, but Purussaurus is consistently ranked among the top two or three largest crocodilians in Earth's history.

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