* Astronomy

Fossils of a new species of ancient crocodile cousin have been found in limestone once destined for Italian kitchen countertops, a new study says.
The fossils were originally discovered in a limestone quarry in Ferrara, Italy, in 1955 after workers sliced a huge block into four slabs and found the bones trapped inside.
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Primary findings:

1. Pakasuchus kapilimai is known from multiple specimens, with the holotype (the specimen on which a taxonomic name is based) represented by a virtually complete skull and skeleton.
2. Pakasuchus was a small crocodyliform, with a skull length of ~7 cm and a total body length estimated at 55 cm.
3. Micro-computed tomography (CT) scanning was used to reveal high-resolution detail of the small skull, dentition, and skeleton, some of which is still completely embedded in rock.
4. When compared to other crocodyliforms, the skull and dentition are among the most unusual features of Pakasuchus, particularly the occluding upper and lower molar-like teeth that have shearing surfaces.
5. Unerupted replacement teeth in the jaws of Pakasuchus already exhibit characteristic shearing ridges, indicating that this morphology (shape) is determined by genetics and not merely as a result of one tooth wearing against another.
6. The forward-facing opening to the Pakasuchus nasal cavity suggests the animal had a primarily terrestrial (land-living) existence, rather than the aquatic one that is typical of crocodylians today.
7. Notosuchian crocodyliforms, the group to which Pakasuchus belongs, diversified during the Middle and Late Cretaceous Period and are known primarily from former Gondwanan landmasses such as Africa, Madagascar and South America.
8. The amazing diversity of small-bodied notosuchians on southern continents, along with an apparent paucity of mammals from these same places, suggests that notosuchians may have been exploiting a mammalian niche in Gondwana during the Cretaceous.

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Title: A New Horned Crocodile from the Plio-Pleistocene Hominid Sites at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
Authors: Christopher A. Brochu, Jackson Njau, Robert J. Blumenschine, Llewellyn D. Densmore

The fossil record reveals surprising crocodile diversity in the Neogene of Africa, but relationships with their living relatives and the biogeographic origins of the modern African crocodylian fauna are poorly understood. A Plio-Pleistocene crocodile from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, represents a new extinct species and shows that high crocodylian diversity in Africa persisted after the Miocene. It had prominent triangular "horns" over the ears and a relatively deep snout, these resemble those of the recently extinct Malagasy crocodile Voay robustus, but the new species lacks features found among osteolaemines and shares derived similarities with living species of Crocodylus.

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A suite of five ancient crocs, including one with teeth like boar tusks and another with a snout like a duck's bill, have been discovered in the Sahara by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno. The five fossil crocs, three of them newly named species, are remains of a bizarre world of crocs that inhabited the southern land mass known as Gondwana some 100 million years ago. The unique finding provides fascinating insight into the evolutionary history of life on Earth.
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