New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

Dinosaurs were not the top predators of the Triassic landscape. Instead, the crocodile-like phytosaurs (FY • toe •saurs) were the largest (up to 10 meters/32.8 feet long) and most ferocious meat-eaters on the floodplain. Phytosaurs probably attacked their prey by ambushing them with a sudden lunge from the water.