Date: Unknown
Location: Queensland, Australia
Quinkana share their name with mythical spirits called quinkans, which appear in aboriginal rock paintings near the town of Laura in Queensland. Estimates suggest that these paintings are around 40,000 years old, but nothing in them shows that humans encountered this fearsome reptile.
The serrated teeth were adapted to cutting flesh rather than drowning prey like modern crocodiles. Strong legs would have allowed it to hunt away from water. Because its belly wasn’t dragging on the ground, it might have moved quickly across land. The size of the biggest species would have put it right at the top of the food chain. The quinkana was given its name much more recently. The type specimen is credited to Ralph Molnar and his 1981 paper on the Pleistocene crocodilians of Queensland.
