''Elosuchus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 ''Croc ...

crocodyliform Crocodyliformes is a clade of Crurotarsi, crurotarsan archosaurs, the group often traditionally referred to as "crocodilians". They are the first members of Crocodylomorpha to possess many of the features that define later relatives. They are the ...

that lived during the

Middle Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ninth and longest geologi ...

of what is now Africa (

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

and

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

Description and taxonomy

''Elosuchus'' had an elongated snout like a

gharial The gharial (''Gavialis gangeticus''), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family (biology), family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are long, and males . Adult males ...

and was probably a fully aquatic animal. The type species, ''E. cherifiensis'' from Algeria and Morocco, was originally described as a species of ''

Thoracosaurus ''Thoracosaurus'' (chest lizard) is an extinct genus of long-snouted eusuchian which existed during the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene in North America and Europe. Taxonomy ''Thoracosaurus'' had traditionally been thought to be related to ...

'' by Lavocat, but was recognized as a genus separate from ''Thoracosaurus'' by de Broin in 2002. ''Elosuchus felixi'', described from the Echkar Formation of Niger, was renamed '' Fortignathus'' in 2016 and is either a dyrosaurid relative or a non-hyposaurine dyrosaurid.de Broin, F. de L., 2002, ''Elosuchus'', a new genus of crocodile from the Lower Cretaceous of the North of Africa: C. R. Palevol, v. 1, p. 275-285.Mark T. Young; Alexander K. Hastings; Ronan Allain; Thomas J. Smith (2016). "Revision of the enigmatic crocodyliform Elosuchus felixi de Lapparent de Broin, 2002 from the Lower–Upper Cretaceous boundary of Niger: potential evidence for an early origin of the clade Dyrosauridae". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Online edition. doi:10.1111/zoj.12452. The largest known skull indicates a body length of up to .

Phylogeny

de Broin (2002) created the family Elosuchidae to contain ''Elosuchus'' and the genus '' Stolokrosuchus'' from Niger. However, recent

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analyses usually find ''Stolokrosuchus'' to be one of the basalmost neosuchian, only distantly related to ''Elosuchus''. Some analyses find a monophyletic Pholidosauridae that includes ''Elosuchus'', while other analyses find ''Elosuchus'' to nest with taxa like ''

Sarcosuchus ''Sarcosuchus'' (), from Ancient Greek σάρξ (''sárx''), meaning "flesh", and σούχος (''soúkhos''), meaning "crocodile", is an extinct genus of crocodyliform a that lived during the Early Cretaceous, from the late Hauterivian to the ...

'' in a clade as a sister-taxon to the node

Dyrosauridae Dyrosauridae is a family of extinct neosuchian crocodyliforms that lived from the Campanian to the Eocene. Dyrosaurid fossils are globally distributed, having been found in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Over a dozen sp ...

+Pholidosauridae.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2221347 Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Africa Fossil taxa described in 2002 Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera Prehistoric marine crocodylomorphs Fossils of Algeria Fossils of Morocco Tethysuchia Cenomanian genera