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Neosuchia
Neosuchia is a clade within Mesoeucrocodylia that includes all modern extant crocodilians and their closest fossil relatives. It is defined as the most inclusive clade containing all Crocodylomorpha, crocodylomorphs more closely related to ''Crocodylus niloticus'' (the Nile Crocodile) than to ''Notosuchus terrestris''. Members of Neosuchia generally share a crocodilian-like bodyform adapted to freshwater aquatic life, as opposed to the terrestrial habits of more basal crocodylomorph groups. The earliest neosuchian is suggested to be the Early Jurassic ''Calsoyasuchus'', which lived during the Sinemurian and Pliensbachian stages in North America. It is often identified as a member of Goniopholididae, though this is disputed, and the taxon may lie outside Neosuchia, which places the earliest records of the group in the Middle Jurassic. Characteristics Members of Neosuchia have a wide diversity of skull shapes. Several groups convergently evolved elongate gharial-like skulls, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wahasuchus
''Wahasuchus'' is an extinct genus of engimatic mesoeucrocodylian, likely a neosuchian, of the Middle Campanian age found in the Quseir Formation, Egypt. First described in 2018, ''Wahasuchus'' is known mostly from fragmentary remains representing multiple individuals. Given its incomplete nature, it is not entirely clear what its closest relatives are, though features of the skull including its generally flattened morphology akin to that of modern crocodiles suggests it was part of the clade Neosuchia. However it bears no close resemblance to any of the early Cretaceous forms known from northern Africa nor the contemporary taxa of Europe, suggesting that it might have been part of a unique radiation endemic to Africa. The genus currently only contains a single species, ''Wahasuchus egyptensis''. History and naming Fossils of ''Wahasuchus'' have been recovered from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) El Hindaw Member of the Quseir Formation in Egypt, with the discovery having been ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paluxysuchus
''Paluxysuchus'' is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform known from the Early Cretaceous Twin Mountains Formation (late Aptian stage) of north-central Texas. It contains a single species, ''Paluxysuchus newmani''. ''Paluxysuchus'' is one of three crocodyliforms known from the Early Cretaceous of Texas, the others being '' Pachycheilosuchus'' and an unnamed species referred to as the "Glen Rose Form". ''Paluxysuchus'' has a long, flat skull that is probably transitional between the long and narrow skulls of many early neosuchians and the short and flat skulls of later neosuchians. Description The skull of ''Paluxysuchus'' is long, flat, and shaped somewhat like a triangle when viewed from above. In the most complete fossil of ''Paluxysuchus'', the skull is about long. The teeth at the tip of the snout are enlarged. A ridge of bone behind the eye socket called the postorbital process has an elongated prong that borders the side of the socket. This feature is seen in only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tethysuchia
Tethysuchia is an extinct clade of neosuchian mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs from the late Middle Jurassic (Bathonian stage) to the Early Eocene (Ypresian stage) of Asia, Europe, North America and South America. It was named by the French paleontologist Eric Buffetaut in 1982 as a suborder. Tethysuchia was considered to be a synonym of Dyrosauridae or Pholidosauridae for many years. In most phylogenetic analyses the node Dyrosauridae+Pholidosauridae was strongly supported. De Andrade ''et al.'' (2011) suggested that Tethysuchia be resurrected for that node. They defined it as a node-based taxon "composed of '' Pholidosaurus purbeckensis'' (Mansel-Pleydell, 1888) and '' Dyrosaurus phosphaticus'' (Thomas, 1893), their common ancestor and all its descendants". In their analysis they found that the support for Tethysuchia is actually stronger than the support for Thalattosuchia. The following cladogram shows the position of Tethysuchia among the Neosuchia Neosuchia is a clade wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atoposauridae
Atoposauridae is an extinct family of neosuchian crocodyliforms, known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of Eurasia. Characterised by their small size and their heterodont (having multiple tooth types) dentition, they are thought to have lived in terrestrial and semi-aquatic environments, and to have consumed small prey such as fish, insects and mammals. The oldest records of the group are known from the Middle Jurassic of Britain. The majority of the family are known from Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous deposits in France, Portugal, and Bavaria in southern Germany. The discovery of the genus '' Aprosuchus'', however, extends the duration of the lineage to the end of the Cretaceous in Romania. Classification Atoposaurids are universally considered members of Neosuchia. Tennant et al. (2016) in their revision of the group, found atoposaurids to be basal neosuchians, and the group as traditionally defined to be paraphyletic with respect to Paralligatoridae, restricting Atoposaurid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pholidosaurid
Pholidosauridae is an extinct Family (biology), family of aquatic neosuchian mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs. Fossils have been found in Europe (Denmark, England, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden), Africa (Algeria, Niger, Mali, Morocco and Tunisia), North America (Canada and the United States) and South America (Brazil and Uruguay). The pholidosaurids first appeared in the fossil record during the Bathonian stage of the Middle Jurassic. Jouve & Jalil (2020) described postcranial material of a pholidosaurid from the Paleocene (Danian) of Ouled Abdoun Basin (Morocco), representing the most recent record of the family. The authors also reinterpreted putative Maastrichtian Dyrosauridae, dyrosaurid ''Sabinosuchus'' as a pholidosaurid, and argued that at least two independent pholidosaurid lineages reached the Maastrichtian, among which one survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Before the publication of this study it was thought that the family became extinct during t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paralligatoridae
Paralligatoridae is an extinct family of neosuchian crocodyliforms that existed during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. It includes the genera '' Paralligator'', '' Brillanceausuchus'', '' Kansajsuchus'', '' Shamosuchus'', '' Scolomastax'', '' Sabresuchus'', '' Rugosuchus'', '' Batrachomimus'' and '' Wannchampsus'', as well as the yet-unnamed "Glen Rose form". Evolution Phylogenetic analyses of crocodyliforms find Paralligatoridae to nest within Neosuchia, a large clade (evolutionary grouping) that also includes modern crocodylians. In crocodyliform phylogeny, paralligatorids are usually found near the base of Neosuchia, outside the clade Eusuchia, which includes crocodylians and their closest relatives. Below is a cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s . ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goniopholididae
Goniopholididae is an extinct family of moderate-sized semi-aquatic neosuchian crocodyliformes. Their bodyplan and morphology are convergent on living crocodilians. They lived across Laurasia (Asia, Europe and North America) between the Middle Jurassic (possibly Early Jurassic, see below) and the Late Cretaceous. Description The dorsal armour of goniopholidids is composed of two rows of paired osteoderms (as opposed to the four main pairs present in living crocodilians and other eusuchians), which are rectangular in shape and wider than they are long, with the lateral margins ventrally deflected and an anterior process for a ‘peg and groove’ articulation. Unlike modern crocodilians they have ventral osteoderms as well. Their forelimbs are also proportionally very long, particularly in the humeri and wrist bones, being as long or longer than the hindlimbs, the opposite of the condition seen in modern crocodilians. Some like '' Anteophthalmosuchus'' also have forwardly orient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eusuchia
Eusuchia is a clade of neosuchian Crocodylomorpha, crocodylomorphs that first appeared in the Early Cretaceous, which includes modern Crocodilia, crocodilians. Along with Dyrosauridae and Sebecosuchia, they were the only crocodyliformes who survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, K-Pg extinction. Definition Eusuchia was originally defined by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1875 as an apomorphy-based group, meaning that it was defined by shared characteristics rather than relations. These characteristics include pterygoid-bounded choanae and vertebrae which are procoelous (concave from the front and convex from the back). The possibility that these traits may have been Convergent evolution, convergently evolved in different groups of neosuchians rather than one lineage spurred some modern paleontologists to revise the group's definition to make it defined solely by relations. In 1999, Christopher Brochu redefined Eusuchia as "the last common ancestor of ''Hylaeochampsa'' and C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodylomorpha
Crocodylomorpha is a group of pseudosuchian archosaurs that includes the crocodilians and their extinct relatives. They were the only members of Pseudosuchia to survive the end-Triassic extinction. Extinct crocodylomorphs were considerably more ecologically diverse than modern crocodillians. The earliest and most primitive crocodylomorphs are represented by " sphenosuchians", a paraphyletic assemblage containing small-bodied, slender forms with elongated limbs that walked upright, which represents the ancestral morphology of Crocodylomorpha. These forms persisted until the end of the Jurassic. During the Jurassic, crocodylomorphs morphologically diversified into numerous niches, with the subgroups Neosuchia (which includes modern crocodilians) and the extinct Thalattosuchia adapting to aquatic life, while some terrestrial groups adopted herbivorous and omnivorous lifestyles. Terrestrial crocodylomorphs would continue to co-exist alongside aquatic forms until becoming extinct d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burkesuchus
''Burkesuchus'' is an extinct genus of basal neosuchians from the Upper Jurassic (Tithonian)-aged Toqui Formation of southern Chile. The genus is currently represented by a single species ''B. mallingrandensis'', named and described in 2021 on the basis of the holotype and additional referred specimens. ''Burkesuchus mallingrandensis'' was noticeably small being around an estimated 70 cm (27.5 inches) in length. The cranium is dorsoventrally depressed and transversely wide posteriorly and distinguished by a posteroventrally flexed wing-like squamosal. ''Burkesuchus'' was a small carnivore likely on invertebrates animals such as insects, crustaceans and may had feed on small aquatic vertebrates like fish. ''B''. ''mallingrandensis'' did not have the ability to feed on large prey items or tear large chunks of meat like modern day crocodiles do. The holotype SQO.PV 17700, consist of a cervical neural arch, partial neurocranium, four dorsal vertebrae, right scapula, a right corac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilchristosuchus
''Gilchristosuchus'' (meaning "Gilchrist type_specimen.html" ;"title="he owners of the ranch where the type specimen">he owners of the ranch where the type specimen was foundcrocodile") is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform.Crocodyliformes and Neosuchia are clades that include all living crocodilians and successively smaller subsets of their closest extinct relatives. Its fossils have been found in the upper Milk River Formation of Alberta, Canada, in rocks of either latest Santonian or earliest Campanian age (Late Cretaceous). ''Gilchristosuchus'' was described in 1993 by Wu and Brinkman. The type species is ''G. palatinus'', in reference to its distinctive palatine bones. ''Gilchristosuchus'' is based on RTMP 91.101.1, a partial posterior skull and a neck vertebra. The skull would have been about long when complete. It represents the first articulated crocodylomorph specimen from the Milk River Formation. Isolated remains had been found earlier and assign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernissartiidae
Bernissartiidae is an extinct family (biology), family of Neosuchia, neosuchian crocodyliformes known from the Early Cretaceous. Bernissartiid fossils have been reported from Belgium, France, Spain, England, Tunisia and the United States. It currently contains two genera, ''Bernissartia'' from the Barremian aged Sainte-Barbe Clays Formation, Sainte-Barbe Clays of Belgium and ''Koumpiodontosuchus'' from the equivalently aged Wessex Formation in southern England. Members of this family display adaptations for a Durophagy, durophagous lifestyle, especially the heterodont dentition of ''Koumpiodontosuchus''. Indeterminate remains have been reported from the Oum ed Diab Member of Tunisia, the Cloverly Formation and Arundel Clay of the United States, and the La Huérguina Formation, Blesa Formation, Villanueva de Huerva Formation, El Castellar Formation, Camarillas Formation and El Collado Formation of Spain, and the Angeac-Charente bonebed in France. References Neosuchia Ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
