According to the study, the cat-size Pakasuchus kapilimai had relatively long legs and a nose similar to a dog's. Perhaps weirdest of all, Pakasuchus—literally, "cat crocodile"—had mammal-like teeth that gave the crocodile a power previously unknown among reptiles: the ability to chew.

As a result, the 105-million-year-old crocodile, researchers say, was something of a stand-in for mammals in the mammal-poor, long-gone southern supercontinent of Gondwana, which included the Pakasuchus fossil site in what's now Tanzania.

According to lead study author Patrick O'Connor, Pakasuchus's "legs were longer and more slender than what you think of for modern crocodiles ... and it had a little more of an upright stance," the Ohio University paleontologist said.

Living among dinosaurs, the