Its genus name Litargosuchus is derived from Greek meaning "fast running crocodile" and its species name leptorhynchus refers to its gracile snout.

[1][2][3] In 1988 James Kitching found the holotype fossil of Litargosuchus in a field expedition in Eagles Crag, a farm near Barkly East in the Eastern Cape.

A dedicated research lab based at the Evolutionary Studies Institute has led several field expeditions to localities where Elliot Formation rocks are exposed with the hope of finding more fossil material.

Litargosuchus was a small, gracile non-crocodyliform spheosuchid crocodylomorph restricted to the Sinemurian of the lower Jurassic.

In addition, only one specimen of Litargosuchus is known to science, which means that there is no other comparative fossil data with members of its own species.