Ancient plated ‘crocodile warrior’ lived before dinos and was ruthless killer

AN ANCIENT predator that lived before the dinosaurs was a “precursor” of the modern crocodile.

Experts have shed light on the “extremely rare” discovery of a new armour-plated carnivore that lived 240 million years ago.

This long-lost lizard might look like a dinosaur – but it was hunting prey just before dinosaurs truly arrived.

It’s officially named Tainrakuasuchus bellator, partly after the Latin for “warrior” or “fighter”.

And it’s a Pseudosuchia, which is the precursor of modern crocodiles and alligators

It measured about eight feet in length, and weighed just north of 130lbs.

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Experts say it would’ve used its long neck and agility to make “quick and precise” movements, gripping prey with its slender jaw.

And its mouth was packed with sharp, recurved teeth what would hold the target and prevent them from escaping.

All the more impressive was the fact that despite being a top hunter, it wasn’t the biggest creature at the time.

“This animal was an active predator, but despite its relatively large size, it was far from the largest hunter of its time with the same ecosystem home to giants as big as seven meters long,” explained lead author Dr Rodrigo Temp Müller, lead author on the study.

Dr Müller, of the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, in Brazil, said it was among a group of the most dominant predators of its time.

“Pseudosuchia were a diverse group of animals capable of tackling robust prey, as well as small hunters specialised in catching swift animals,” he explained, adding that the creature wasn’t a dinosaur.

“Although its appearance superficially resembles that of a dinosaur, Tainrakuasuchus bellator does not belong to that group,” the expert explained.

“One of the clearest ways for us to distinguish it from dinosaurs lies in the structure of the pelvis where the characteristics of its hip and femur joints are very different.”

Dr Müller added: “Tainrakuasuchus bellator’s discovery represents the complexity of the ecosystem at the time, with different pseudosuchia species – varying in sizes and hunting strategies – occupying specific ecological niches.

“Its discovery helps illuminate a key moment in the history of life, the period that preceded the rise of the dinosaurs.”

The creature was discovered during in a dig in southern Brazil‘s Dona Francisca in May 2025.

It was found surrounded in rock, with a partial skeleton preserving parts of the ancient croc’s lower jaw, vertebral column, and pelvic girdle.

This allowed the researchers to work out more about the creature’s behaviour.

And it revealed that the lizard’s back was covered by bony plates, similar structures to those seen on modern crocodiles.

The first part of the creature’s name – Tainrakuasuchus – combines words for tooth, pointed, and crocodile.

And scientists hailed finding the creature as an “extremely rare” discovery.

“Despite the diversity of pseudosuchians, they remain poorly understood, as fossils of some their lineages are extremely rare in the fossil record,” Dr Müller said.

“The fossils we found underwent a meticulous preparation process in the laboratory, during which the surrounding rock was carefully removed.

“Once the anatomical details were revealed, we were delighted and really excited to reveal that the specimen represented a species previously unknown to science.”

Interestingly, experts revealed how the creature highlights a physical link between Brazil and Africa.

That’s because the shape of Earth‘s continents looked very different than today.

“What we uncovered was a species that belongs to a predator closely related to one (Mandasuchus tanyauchen) found in Tanzania,” Dr Müller noted.

“This connection between animals from South America and Africa can be understood in light of the Triassic Period’s paleogeography.

“At that time, the continents were still united, which allowed the free dispersal of organisms across regions that are now separated by oceans.

“As a result, the faunas of Brazil and Africa shared several common elements, reflecting an intertwined evolutionary and ecological history.

“Tainrakuasuchus bellator would have lived in a region bordering a vast, arid desert – the same setting as where the first dinosaurs emerged.

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“It shows that, in what is now southern Brazil, reptiles had already formed diverse communities adapted to various survival strategies. Moreover, this discovery reveals that such diversity was not an isolated phenomenon.”

The research was published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.