“Witch Croc” Labrujasuchus expectatus: Bipedal, Toothless Crocodile Cousin Stomped Across New Mexico 212 Million Years Ago!

Paleontologists have described Labrujasuchus expectatus (“witch croc”), a bizarre new shuvosaurid archosaur from Ghost Ranch’s Hayden Quarry in northern New Mexico that walked on two legs, possessed tiny arms, and sported a completely toothless, beak-tipped snout — looking far more like an ostrich-mimic dinosaur than any crocodile.

Described May 27, 2026, in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology by a team led by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the partial skeleton was recovered from the Petrified Forest Member of the Chinle Formation and dated to approximately 212 million years ago (Late Triᴀssic). At roughly 2–2.5 meters long, Labrujasuchus belongs to the Shuvosauridae, a group of pseudosuchian archosaurs that converged on a bipedal, gracile body plan strikingly similar to Cretaceous ornithomimid dinosaurs.

The specimen fills a crucial temporal gap between earlier and later North American shuvosaurs, confirming that these “croc-line dinosaurs” thrived across the American Southwest for millions of years. Its edentulous beak suggests a diet of small animals, insects, or perhaps plants, while its long hind limbs and reduced forelimbs indicate a fast, cursorial lifestyle.

“This animal is a perfect example of convergent evolution,” notes lead researcher Alan Turner. “A member of the crocodile lineage evolved the same body plan that ornithomimosaurs would later perfect — all before the dinosaurs took over.”

The discovery underscores the astonishing diversity of Triᴀssic archosaurs and highlights Ghost Ranch’s status as one of the world’s richest windows into the dawn of the dinosaur era. As more material is prepared, Labrujasuchus expectatus promises to illuminate how crocodile relatives experimented with dinosaur-like forms long before the Age of Dinosaurs truly began.