It has been nicknamed "PancakeCroc" by Paul Sereno and Hans Larsson, who first described the genus in a monograph published in ZooKeys in 2009 along with other Saharan crocodyliformes such as Anatosuchus and Kaprosuchus.

[4] Both species of Laganosuchus are known only from their lower jaws, those of L. thaumastos almost complete save for the left retroarticular process and those of L. maghrebensis only from a fragment of the dentary bone.

Each side of the mouth bore 24 teeth, relatively evenly spaced save for the sixth and seventh, the dental alveoli of which have merged.

Each side of these jaws is gently bowed outwards horizontally, curving more strongly towards the symphysis of the two dentary bones from the seventh alveolus forwards.

Most of the teeth are broken or missing, but a few were being replaced when the specimen died and have so been preserved in their crypts; they are straight, perfectly symmetrical spikes with no ornamentation, carinae or recurvature.

In L. maghrebensis, however, the fourth tooth in the dentary is slightly larger than the first and there is no procumbency of the first dental alveoli, so its front teeth would not have projected forwards in the same fashion.