美国和阿根廷科学家在11月10日出版的《科学》杂志上发表的一项研究报告中说，在恐龙主宰的侏罗纪时代，地球上曾生活着一种体长达13英尺（约合3.96米）、短吻且长了满口致命牙齿的巨大鳄鱼。这种巨鳄生活在海洋中，并以一些大型海洋生物为食。

    据美联社11月10日报道，这种巨鳄被其发现者昵称为“格斯拉”（Godzilla，日本著名怪兽的名字），而它的学名则是Dakosaurus andiniensis。这种鳄鱼和以前发现的其它一些生活在海洋中的鳄鱼不同。以前发现的鳄鱼通常嘴部较长，牙齿很多但比较小。

    研究报告的撰写人之一、美国俄亥俄大学的迪戈·保罗对此表示：“这种动物是鳄鱼家族中体态最大的成员之一，同时也是所有海洋鳄鱼中，样子最为怪异的一种。”研究报告主要撰写人、阿根廷国立大学的祖玛·盖斯帕里尼也表示，这种巨鳄的身体结构和那些生活在约1.35亿年前侏罗纪时期的其它海洋鳄鱼有着很大的差异。

    保罗说，大部分鳄鱼都长着长而狭窄的嘴及较小牙齿，这说明它们主要以体态较小的猎物为食。而新发现的“格斯拉”则拥有大的锯齿状牙齿，这显示它们是一种能捕食大型猎物的食肉动物。保罗说：“这种身长约13英尺（约合3.96米）的巨鳄是一种顶级掠食者。它们在水中四处游弋，用锯齿状的大牙捕食并撕咬猎物，就像恐龙和其它食肉类的爬行动物一样。”“格斯拉”还具有像船桨一样的四肢和垂直向下的鱼一样的尾巴。它会有规律地浮出水面呼吸，然后又潜入海中。

    报道说，以前人们曾发现了这种海洋巨鳄的骨骼碎片，而关于它的具体情况则来自一具1996年在阿根廷发现的保存完整的头骨化石。保罗、盖斯帕里尼和其他一些研究人员对这具头骨化石进行了深入的分析研究。发现这具头骨的地区在侏罗纪时期曾是一个热带海湾。

    报道说，在2.3亿年至6500万年前，世界一些浅海地区曾生活着一些体型巨大的动物，如脖子长达20英尺（约合6.01米）的蛇颈龙以及身长可达75英尺（约合22.86米）的巨大鱼龙等。

    此项研究由阿根廷科学技术研究国立委员会和美国国家地理学会支持，研究成果被发表在《科学》杂志11月10日的网络版本《科学快报》上。

    In the era when dinosaurs ruled the Jurassic earth, a 13-foot oceanic crocodile with a short snout and a mouthful of deadly teeth hunted large creatures in the sea, scientists reported Thursday.

    Nicknamed "Godzilla" by its discoverers, the new find was much different from other marine crocodiles, which had long snouts with many small teeth.

    The discovery of the creature, given the scientific name Dakosaurus andiniensis, was reported Thursday in ScienceExpress, the online edition of the journal Science.

    "This animal was one of the latest members of its family and certainly the most bizarre of all marine crocs," said Diego Pol of Ohio State University, one of the authors of the report.

    Lead author Zulma Gasparini of Argentina's National University of La Plata said the "animal's anatomy is really a contrast with that of the other sea crocs that developed during the Jurassic," about 135 million years ago.

    The long narrow snout and small teeth of most crocs indicate feeding on small prey, Pol said, while Dakosaurus' large serrated teeth indicate a carnivore that would have hunted large prey.

    "This was a top predator that probably was 13 feet long and swam around using its jagged teeth to bite and cut its prey, like dinosaurs and other predatory reptiles did," Pol said.

    Instead of legs, Dakosaurus had four paddle-like limbs and a vertically oriented, fishlike tail. Dakosaurus would have regularly surfaced to gasp oxygen and then could dive into the ocean.

    "We are calling him the 'chico malo' — 'bad boy'" of the ocean, said Gasparini. While Dakosaurus had been known from a few bone fragments previously, the new detail comes from a complete skull found in Argentina in 1996 and studied by Pol, Gasparini and colleagues. The area where it was found had been a deep tropical bay during the Jurassic period.

    The world's relatively shallow seas between 230 million and 65 million years ago contained several large animals, such as the plesiosaur with a 20-foot neck and the giant ichthyosaurs that could be 75-feet long.

    The research was funded by Argentina's National Council of Scientific and Technical Research and the National Geographic Society. The discovery will also be featured in the December issue of National Geographic Magazine.