Triassic Two-Legged Crocodile Relative Unearthed in New Mexico

Paleontologists described Labrujasuchus expectatus, a new shuvosaurid archosaur from Hayden Quarry in northern New Mexico, about 212 million years old. This toothless, bipedal relative of crocodile ancestors helps fill a 10-million-year gap with Shuvosaurus and Effigia, reinforcing the idea that western North America hosted an endemic, morphologically conservative group of small, two‑legged archosaurs during the Triassic; the study was published online May 26, 2026 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.