Crocodile kin beats dinosaurs to beaked, two-legged form by 212 million years

A new species, Labrujasuchus expectatus, from Ghost Ranch, NM, shows a two‑legged, toothless‑beaked crocodile relative that looked like a small theropod dinosaur but wasn’t a dinosaur. Dated to about 212 million years ago in the Late Triassic, it demonstrates convergent evolution—crocodile lineages and later dinosaurs independently arriving at a similar beaked, two-legged form under comparable ecological pressures. The find highlights how the crocodile branch explored a variety of body plans long before dinosaurs dominated the terrestrial fauna.