Scientists aim to uncover secrets of centenarian crocodile

Researchers in Australia are trying to determine the true age of the world's largest saltwater crocodile in captivity, who died last weekend.

- Emily Wind

Cassius, a Guinness World Record holder thought to be at least 110 years old, died at Marineland Melanesia on Green Island in Queensland, where he had lived since 1987.

Cassius died mere weeks after his decades-long best friend and the owner of Marineland Melanesia, George Craig, moved off the island, going into a care home on the mainland. Craig's grandson Toody Scott said it would be easy to assume that there had been an element of stress involved in Cassius's death, with the pair having shared a close bond.

"It was just a matter of weeks [after Craig left the island] and Cassius started refusing food, and two weeks later we found him unresponsive," he said, explaining that the croc went into "a very quick decline." "Thirty-seven years of living together and a matter of weeks of separation and we lose one of them."