New Triassic discovery: Paleontologists described Tainrakuasuchus bellator, a 2.4 m (7.9 ft), 60 kg (130 lb) armor-plated pseudosuchian from Brazil that lived about 240 million years ago. Though dinosaur-like in appearance, it belongs to the crocodile lineage and had a long neck, sharp-toothed narrow jaw and bony osteoderms along its back. The partial skeleton links to a related Tanzanian species dated to ~245 million years ago, reflecting faunal connections across Pangea and shedding light on early archosaur diversity.
240-Million-Year-Old Armored 'Warrior' Crocodile Relative from Pangea Resembled a Dinosaur
New Triassic discovery: Paleontologists described Tainrakuasuchus bellator, a 2.4 m (7.9 ft), 60 kg (130 lb) armor-plated pseudosuchian from Brazil that lived about 240 million years ago. Though dinosaur-like in appearance, it belongs to the crocodile lineage and had a long neck, sharp-toothed narrow jaw and bony osteoderms along its back. The partial skeleton links to a related Tanzanian species dated to ~245 million years ago, reflecting faunal connections across Pangea and shedding light on early archosaur diversity.
02:36 PM, 11/13/2025Science
Armored crocodile ancestor from Pangea resembled a dinosaur
Researchers have described a large, armor-plated reptile that hunted in what is now Brazil about 240 million years ago, during the Triassic period just before dinosaurs rose to dominance. The discovery fills gaps in our understanding of terrestrial ecosystems immediately preceding the age of dinosaurs and highlights ancient biogeographic links between South America and Africa.
Although it looked superficially dinosaur-like, the animal belongs to the crocodile lineage. The team named it Tainrakuasuchus bellator — a compound drawn from Greek, Latin and the Guarani language meaning "pointed-tooth warrior crocodile" — and published their description in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology on Nov. 13.
"Its discovery helps illuminate a key moment in the history of life, the period that preceded the rise of the dinosaurs,"
— Rodrigo Temp Müller, lead author and paleontologist at the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil.
Archosaurs — the so-called "ruling reptiles" — dominated terrestrial vertebrate ecosystems during the Triassic (about 252–201 million years ago). That group split into two main branches: the bird-line archosaurs (Avemetatarsalia), which include dinosaurs and eventually birds, and the crocodile-line archosaurs (Pseudosuchia), which gave rise to modern crocodilians. Tainrakuasuchus bellator belongs to the pseudosuchian lineage.
The animal was roughly 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) long and is estimated to have weighed about 60 kilograms (130 pounds). It had a long neck, a narrow jaw packed with sharp teeth and a back armored with bony plates known as osteoderms — a feature shared with modern crocodiles. The fossil belongs to a clade called poposauroids, members of which are rare in South American deposits.
The partial skeleton recovered in an excavation in May from the Dona Francisca municipality in Brazil includes the lower jaw, vertebrae and pelvis. Despite its impressive build, Müller notes that the same ecosystem hosted much larger predators — some reaching roughly seven meters (23 feet) in length — underscoring the diversity of Triassic faunas.
Biogeographic link: T. bellator appears closely related to Mandasuchus tanyauchen, a specimen described from Tanzania and dated to about 245 million years ago. At that time Africa and South America were joined within the supercontinent Pangea, allowing species to disperse across what are now separate continents. That shared history helps explain common elements in the fossil records of both regions.
Because poposauroids and other pseudosuchians are uncommon in the fossil record, each new discovery like T. bellator provides important context for how archosaur diversity and ecosystems evolved in the run-up to the age of dinosaurs.