Researchers describe a fossil reptile from Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state that is estimated to be about 240 million years old. The find comes from a period well before dinosaurs become dominant on land and long before modern crocodiles appear. According to the reports, the fossil helps clarify how early ancestors of dinosaurs and crocodiles evolved from a shared lineage during the aftermath of Earth’s largest mass extinction. During this interval, close relatives of both dinosaur and crocodile groups are thought to have been experimenting with different body forms, postures, and ways of moving. By placing the new specimen in this broader evolutionary context, the studies aim to improve understanding of the common origins of dinosaurs and crocodiles and the kinds of locomotion and body plans that existed before their evolutionary paths fully diverged. The fossil does not indicate a single, fixed transition; rather, it supports the idea that multiple evolutionary experiments occurred in the early Triassic as lineages that later gave rise to dinosaurs and crocodiles developed.