STEVE IRWIN WOULD HAVE APPROVED: Before crocodiles lurked on the water's edge, they bounded after prey on long legs. That's the message of a fossil unearthed in 2004 from the Brazilian countryside that has just gone on public display in S�o Paulo. The 80-million-year-old specimen, dubbed Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi (imagined here in a reconstruction), measured 5.5 feet (1.7 meters) long and came equipped with long legs that researchers say must have made it a fearsome predator. Combining features of prehistoric and modern crocodiles, the animal may represent a window into an evolutionary blossoming of crocodilian forms that culminated in the squat, scaly beasts that terrorize today's swamps and television nature shows.