Sao Paulo, Brazil -(AP) - The 80 million-year-old remains of a land-bound reptile described as a possible link between prehistoric and modern-day crocodiles were displayed to the public for the first time on Thursday.
"The fossil of the 5 1/2-foot-long predator was found in 2004 near Monte Alto, northwest of Sao Paulo," said paleontologist Felipe Mesquita de Vasconcellos.
The long-limbed and extremely agile animal, dubbed "Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi," roamed arid and hot terrain that is now Brazilian countryside, he said.
"As a missing link to prehistoric crocodiles, it offers us an excellent opportunity to study the evolutionary transition of these animals," he said. "It has a mix of morphological traits common in prehistoric crocodiles and in the ones that exist today."
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