The first bone remains were found and collected in 1995 by Brazilian paleontologist William Nava, in red rocks from the fossiliferous Adamantina Formation.

[1] Four years later, it was described as Mariliasuchus amarali, by Brazilian paleontologists Ismar de Souza Carvalho and Reinaldo J. Bertini.

[2] Several specimens of M. amarali have been found close to eggs, eggshells and coprolites to date: UFRJ DG 50-R (holotype): a partially complete and articulated skeleton, including a nearly complete skull and partially preserved axial and appendicular skeletons.

[3] A phylogenetic analysis done by Zaher et al. (2006) found Mariliasuchus amarali to share a close relationship with Comahuesuchus.

The function of this strange arrangement is not yet clear, but Vasconcellos et al. (2002) made comparisons with the dentition of pigs, indicating that their dietary preferences may be convergent.

Some of this is related to ontogenetic variation, but some may also suggest sexual dimorphism, or even that some of the specimens assigned to this species belong to a different animal.