Ancient 'Drop Crocs' Evidence Discovered in Australia

Sun Nov 30 2025 22:56:47 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Fossilized eggshells belonging to the ancient croc 'Drop Crocs' have been uncovered in Queensland, shedding light on Australia's prehistoric wildlife.

Researchers have discovered 55-million-year-old eggshells in Queensland that likely belonged to a long-extinct species of crocodile, known as 'drop crocs'. These creatures were believed to have climbed trees to hunt prey. The findings emphasize the rich prehistoric biodiversity of Australia and reveal that these mekosuchine crocodiles were prevalent long before modern species adapted to the region.

Scientists have unearthed Australia's oldest known crocodile eggshells which may have belonged to drop crocs - creatures that climbed trees to hunt prey below.

The discovery of the 55-million-year-old eggshells was made in a sheep farmer's backyard in Queensland with the findings published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The eggshells belonged to a long-extinct group of crocodiles known as mekosuchines, who lived in inland waters when Australia was part of Antarctica and South America.

Co-author Prof Michael Archer said drop crocs were a bizarre idea but some were perhaps hunting like leopards - dropping out of trees on any unsuspecting thing they fancied for dinner.

Prof Archer, a palaeontologist at the University of New South Wales, stated that mekosuchine crocodiles - which could grow to around five metres - were plentiful 55 million years ago, long before their modern saltwater and freshwater cousins arrived in Australia about 3.8 million years ago.

The drop croc eggshells were discovered several decades ago but only recently analyzed with the help of scientists in Spain.

It's a bizarre idea, Prof Archer said of the drop crocs, but some were probably terrestrial hunters in the forests.

The findings add to earlier discoveries of younger mekosuchine fossils - found in 25-million-year-old deposits in another part of Queensland.

Some were also apparently at least partly semi-arboreal 'drop crocs', Prof Archer added.

Since the early 1980s, he has been part of a team excavating a clay pit in Murgon, a small regional town about 270km (168 miles) north-west of Brisbane.

This site has become famous for its ancient fossils, having once been surrounded by a lush forest.

This forest was also home to the world's oldest-known songbirds, Australia's earliest frogs and snakes, a wide range of small mammals with South American links, as well as one of the world's oldest known bats, said Dr Michael Stein, a co-author of the report.

Prof Archer recalls his team approaching a local farmer in 1983, asking if they could excavate his backyard, with the landowner enthusiastically agreeing after hearing about the potential ancient treasures buried beneath it.

And, quite clearly, from the many fascinating animals that we've already found in this deposit since 1983, we know that with more digging there will be a lot more surprises to come.

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