The fossil of a 93 million-year-old crocodile has been uncovered by scientists in Australia.

And it still had the remains of its last meal in its stomach: a baby dinosaur.

Experts reckon the ancient croc would have been around 8 feet long when it died.

Although they first started finding evidence of its existence back in 2010 – they’ve only recently put the pieces together. And we mean that literally: some parts of the croc’s remains were partially crushed.

The remains were found near the Winton Formation in eastern Australia. In amongst the remains of the crocodile were small bones belonging to a dinosaur it had devoured.

The painstaking work to restore it has been going on for over a decade. And this week the researchers at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum published their findings in the  journal Gondwana Research.

Scientists have named the new crocodile species Confractosuch Sauroktonos (Provider: Facebook/Australian Age of Dinosaurs)

They’ve called the freshwater crocodile Confractosuchus Sauroktonos, which means the ‘broken crocodile dinosaur killer’.

About 35% of it was preserved, the researchers said. While the skull was near-complete, it was missing its tail and limbs.

They found the additional dinosaur bones inside the remains using X-Rays and CT scans.

The scans showed up the ‘bones of the small chicken-sized juvenile dinosaur in the gut’. The species of the fearsome croc’s last meal is unknown.

‘3D digital scans from the Imaging and Medical Beamline guided the physical preparation of the crocodile, which was impossible without knowing precisely where the bones were,’ said Joseph Bevitt, a co-author of the study.

The team used high tech scans to put the pieces of the fossil together (Credits: ANSTO)

‘The results were outstanding in providing an entire picture of the crocodile and its last meal, a partially digested juvenile dinosaur.’

Modern-day crocodiles can hold their breath underwater for up to an hour owing to an amazing ability to retain oxygen. They are the ultimate survivors – with a lineage that stretches back 230 million years.

Crocs have been able to adapt to our changing planet, moving quickly both in water and on land. They’re powerful hunters and will lie in wait to grab fish, reptiles, birds and mammals using a long snout and powerful jaws.

Modern crocs are the ancestors of dinosaurs – and they haven’t changed much (Credits: Getty Images/Image Source)

Sadly, there are very few species alive today – just 25. The crocodile population seems unable to survive coming into contact with humans as more and more of them are hunted or die from loss of habitat.

In the age of the dinosaurs, there were hundreds of species of crocs – the largest growing to over 30 feet and weighing three tonnes.