A school bus-sized “terror croc” that once preyed on dinosaurs in the swamps and rivers of the eastern United States has been reconstructed as a full-size, scientifically accurate skeleton for the first time ever. The display recently opened at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, giving visitors a rare opportunity to see one of the fiercest predators of its time up close.
The skeleton represents Deinosuchus schwimmeri, a giant relative of modern crocodiles that grew up to 31 feet long, about the size of a school bus. The animal lived between 83 million and 76 million years ago and is considered the dominant predator of its ecosystem, capable of overpowering large dinosaurs that ventured too close to the water.
Fossil evidence, including bite marks found on dinosaur bones, shows that the terror croc regularly fed on dinosaurs and other large animals along ancient shorelines.
How the terror croc that preyed on dinosaurs was reconstructed
The project is based on more than forty years of research by David Schwimmer, a geology professor at Columbus State University and a leading authority on the species.
Schwimmer worked with Triebold Paleontology Inc., a company that builds fossil replicas for museums, over two years to complete the mount. The team produced high-resolution 3D scans of fossil remains and used them to correctly assemble the skeleton and its bony back armor, called osteoderms.
Nueva réplica fósil del cocodriliano cretácico Deinosuchus expuesta en el Tellus Science Museume en Cartersville, Georgia, Estados Unidos
📷Tellus Science Museum, 2025#Cretacico pic.twitter.com/SBMZZD5Hxn— CRCpaleos (@CRCpaleos) January 2, 2026
Although Deinosuchus resembled an oversized alligator, it belonged to a more ancient branch of the crocodilian family that eventually gave rise to modern alligators, crocodiles, caimans, and gharials.
Hannah Eisla, the museum’s director of education, noted that thousands of students visit Tellus each year from Georgia and neighboring states to learn about the region’s past. She added that the new display gives them a more complete picture of the Cretaceous Period, the final chapter of the age of dinosaurs.
Curatorial coordinator Rebecca Melsheimer explained that Tellus is the only museum to feature a cast of Deinosuchus schwimmeri and that seeing the full skeleton in person makes a far greater impression than any description.
Naming the species and the scientist who found it
The species was formally named in 2020 in Schwimmer’s honor, recognizing his decades of research on Late Cretaceous life in the southeastern United States. His 2002 book on the animal helped lay the groundwork for that recognition. Additional research, including a coprolite study led by former Columbus State student Samantha Harrell, provided further evidence of the predator’s diet.
Schwimmer recalled that his fascination with the species began in childhood near the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where a Deinosuchus skull first captured his attention. He discovered his first fossil of the animal in 1979, a year after joining the university, and has since documented major fossil sites within forty miles of campus. He added that full skeletons like this one help scientists and the public understand far more than fossils alone can reveal.
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