The new predator, a relative of the crocodile, lived 238 million years ago in the Triassic period at the dawn of the age of the dinosaurs. It roamed what is now Brazil and was up to 6.6 metres long and weighed 400kg. The animal has been named Pretosuchus chiniquensis. It was a plant eater and its remains were discovered in sedimentary rock which many millions of years ago was a lake.

It is possible that Prestosuchus was drinking from the lake when it was attacked and killed by a carnivorous predator. The famous German palaeontologist, Friedrich von Heune, discovered the first Prestosuchus in Brazil in 1938.