Paleontology just got wonderfully weird, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is at the center of it. Researchers from NHM’s Dinosaur Institute have described a brand-new species of ancient crocodile relative that walked on two legs, had tiny arms, and carried a toothless beak-tipped mouth — about as far from your image of a crocodile as possible.
Meet Labrujasuchus expectatus, affectionately called the “Witch Croc.” Despite its dinosaur-like silhouette, reminiscent of the ostrich-like ornithomimosaurs of the Cretaceous, this animal belongs to the archosaur branch that led to crocodiles — famously four-legged and full of teeth. It is one of only five known species of shuvosaurids, a group of Triassic reptiles that mastered convergent evolution long before dinosaurs hit their stride.
The fossils were unearthed at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, capping 20 years of excavation and collaboration between NHM scientists and colleagues including lead author Dr. Alan Turner of Stony Brook University. The genus name nods to “Ranchos de los Brujos” — the Ranch of the Witches, an old Spanish name for Ghost Ranch — while the species name expectatus celebrates “the expected unexpected,” since paleontologists knew this missing link was waiting to be found.
Described in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the discovery shows how Triassic body plans still echo in today’s animals. Understanding that ancient past, scientists note, helps us better understand — and protect — the present.
Photo: Art by Jorge Gonzalez, copyright NHMLAC Dinosaur Institute
