Effigia is a small shuvosaurid from the Triassic period. With a bipedal stance, long neck, and a toothless beaked skull, Effigia and other shuvosaurids bore a resemblance to the ornithomimid dinosaursof the Cretaceous Period. However, shuvosaurids were not dinosaurs, but were instead a specialized family of poposauroidpseudosuchians, meaning that their closest living relatives are crocodilians
Examination of Effigia's jaws suggest it was a specialist herbivore that filled a nicheas a browser feeding on softer plant material, due to its weak jaws and sharp beak. It was previously suggested that it pecked for food like ostriches or other ratites, but biomechanical studies have estimated that its skull could not withstand such forces