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Paleorhinus was a Late Triassic phytosaur, a long-snouted, semiaquatic archosaur, but not a crocodilian (nor a dinosaur). Phytosaurs are commonly recovered as the most basal members of the lineage of archosaurs leading to crocodilians, although some studies recover them as outside of the split between croc-line and bird-line archosaurs. Paleorhinus shows the phytosaur hallmark of nostrils drawn back atop the skull near the eyes, rather than at the snout tip, which presumably allowed them to breathe while mostly submerged in water.
