Razanandrongobe

Razanandrongobe (meaning "ancestor [of the] large lizard" in Malagasy) is a genus of carnivorous ziphosuchian crocodyliform from the Middle Jurassic of Madagascar. It contains the type and only species Razanandrongobe sakalavae, named in 2004 by Simone Maganuco and colleagues based on isolated bones found in 2003. The remains, which included a fragment of maxilla and teeth, originated from the Bathonian-aged Sakaraha Formation of Mahajanga, Madagascar. While they clearly belonged to a member of the Archosauria, Maganuco and colleagues refrained from assigning the genus to a specific group because the fragmentary remains resembled lineages among both the theropod dinosaurs and crocodylomorphs.

Further remains (including a premaxilla and lower jawbone) had been discovered as early as 1972, but were not described until 2017 by Cristiano Dal Sasso and colleagues. These remains allowed them to confidently assign Razanandrongobe as the oldest-known member of the Notosuchia, a group of crocodylomorphs, which partially filled a gap of 74 million years in the group's evolutionary history. Razanandrongobe shows a number of adaptations to a diet containing bones and tendons, including teeth with large serrations and bony structures reinforcing its palate and teeth. Measuring long, it was the largest member of the Notosuchia and may have occupied a predatory ecological niche similar to theropods.