the american museum of natural history incorporated the skull and jaw fragments into a plaster restoration, modeled after the present-day cuban crocodile. colbert and bird stated this was a "conservative" reconstruction, since an even greater length could have been obtained if a long-skulled modern species, such as the saltwater crocodile had been used as the template. because it was not then known that "deinosuchus" had a broad snout, colbert and bird miscalculated the proportions of the skull, and the reconstruction greatly exaggerated its overall width and length. despite its inaccuracies, the reconstructed skull became the best-known specimen of "deinosuchus", and brought public attention to this giant crocodilian for the first time.