Brazil ? The 80 million-year-old remains of a land-bound reptile, shown above, 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 the small city of Monte Alto, 215 miles northwest of Sao Paulo, paleontologist Felipe Mesquita de Vasconcellos said by telephone, after presenting the find to a news conference at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

The long-limbed and extremely agile animal, dubbed “Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi,” roamed arid and hot terrain that is now Brazilian countryside, Vasconcelos said.

Details of the discovery were published in October in Zootaxa, a peer-reviewed scientific journal based in New Zealand.