Recovered stolen bones from a prehistoric crocodile have led group of Spanish researchers to the discovery of a new species of crocodile that lived 71.5 million years ago. The unique fossil was initially discovered in June 2013, but one night before the bones were to be extracted from the ground for further examination, a longfingered thief beat the archaeologists to it. The unfortunate incident took place in Mirador del Cretaci, which is located in the Pyrenees mountains in the Coll de Nargo municipality in the north-eastern Spanish province of Lledia, which is part of the Catalonia region. The Catalan police's special Historical Heritage Unit was put on the case and managed after weeks of investigating the case to locate the thief and return the stolen bones. By then the fossil was in a very bad state, Bernat Vila, researcher at the Dinosaurs & Ecosystems Group at the Catalan Institute of Palaeontology, Miquel Crusafont, told Real Real Press.