From Normanton, Queensland; Ben Beeton, the Burke and Wills Expedition artist intrepidly reports from inside the mouth of the biggest crocodile ever caught in the Gulf Country.
Though this crocodile is over 8 metres long, Ben tells us that in the distant past, there was another prehistoric species Sarcosuchus imperator that was more than 12 metres long.
Note: It is a life size representation of the record breaking crocodile, not a real crocodile.
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TRANSCRIPT
-We're at Normanton, which is at the gulf, nearing the very end of Burke and Wills' expedition. I'd like to introduce you to Chris. Chris was the largest croc that's been caught in this area. He was caught in 1957 and he's about eight meters. Now when Burke and Wills came this way on their way to the gulf-- and we're almost at the gulf now-- there would have been crocodiles around about this size which could have eaten not only Burke, not only Wills, but their horse as well.
Now when you think about it, we do know that 100 million years ago there was a crocodile called sarcosuchus, which was a dinosaur eater. Now to eat dinosaurs you have to get pretty big. And sarcosuchus grew at least 12 meters long. And if you look down to where Grace is now, you'll see that there once was a croc that was 12 meters long. It's name was sarcosuchus and it ate dinosaurs 100 million years ago.