Pocatello museum unveiling skull recreation of ‘dinosaur-eating’ crocodile this Saturday
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POCATELLO – A local museum will soon have a skull recreation on display of an ancient creature that hasn’t even been officially named yet.
The Idaho Museum of Natural History will hold “Croc-n-Roll: Fall Fossil Fest 2025” at its location on the Idaho State University Quad from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m tomorrow. This year, it will showcase a 3-D printed recreation of an ancient crocodile skull, and give people the opportunity to hear from the scientists who are researching it.
“You often hear about things in the news or you see a documentary, but it’s not a direct one-on-one experience. It’s filtered through something else. So this allows people to see and interact with the people that are doing the research,” said Robert Gay, museum education manager.
This ancient crocodile was first discovered around 15 to 20 years ago in eastern Idaho, when paleontologists discovered, “gigantic skull bones with huge teeth that were very clearly from a big crocodile,” Gay explained.
Research into the crocodile is still ongoing, with LJ Krumnacker, who is an affiliate curator of the museum and holds a PhD in Earth Sciences, recently submitting a paper on it and a much smaller crocodile to a scientific journal for publication. Gay told EastIdahoNews.com that its closest known relative is Deltasuchus, which was discovered in Texas.
Two years ago, the museum began work on recreating the crocodile’s skull.
“We’ve been 3D scanning a bunch of these fossils, and other crocodile fossils from elsewhere like Texas and even Arkansas to help us shed light on what these animals look like,” Gay said. “So we’ve been able to … reconstruct the skull of this monster, dinosaur-eating crocodile, (which is) almost a meter long.”
People who attend tomorrow’s event will be able to hear from Krumnacker and other experts, from universities in Montana, Alaska and New York.
“We’ve got folks coming … that are talking about the animals that lived here in Idaho and southwestern Montana, that would have been munched on by this crocodile, or that would have maybe been trying to coexist with the crocodile,” Gay said.
Fossil fest will also have activities for all ages, with, “ancient dart throwing, buzzsaw shark throwing axes, and opportunities to explore real fossil discoveries from Idaho’s prehistoric past,” reads a press release for the event.
The Mobile Museum will also be returning to the ISU campus for the event, with a walk-through exhibit that “makes science come to life.”
“Visitors will get the opportunity to see original and exact replicas of Idaho natural history objects straight from their collections. These include full Idaho dinosaur skeletons, nests, skulls and interactive displays,” the press release reads.
Gay invited everyone who’s interested to attend the event and see the replicated skull of the crocodile that once made a meal out of dinosaurs.
“(Fossil fest) allows us, as the museum, to show off how we are at the forefront of the research around these Idaho dinosaurs as the state’s official natural history museum,” Gay said.