''Elosuchus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus of neosuchian crocodyliform that lived during the Middle Cretaceous of what is now Africa ( Niger, Morocco and Algeria).

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 Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are long, and males . Adult males have a distinct b ...

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'' is an extinct genus of eusuchian crocodylomorph which existed during the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene in North America and Europe. The taxon had traditionally been thought to be related to the modern false gharial, large ...

'' 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 ''Fortignathus'' is an extinct genus of dyrosaurid or peirosaurid crocodylomorph Crocodylomorpha is a group of pseudosuchian archosaurs that includes the crocodilians and their extinct relatives. They were the only members of Pseudosuchia to ...

'' 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.

Phylogeny

de Broin (2002) created the family Elosuchidae to contain ''Elosuchus'' and the genus '' Stolokrosuchus'' from Niger. However, recent phylogenetic analyses usually find ''Stolokrosuchus'' to be one of the

basalmost In phylogenetics, basal is the direction of the ''base'' (or root) of a rooted phylogenetic tree or cladogram. The term may be more strictly applied only to nodes adjacent to the root, or more loosely applied to nodes regarded as being close to ...

neosuchian, only distantly related to ''Elosuchus''. Some analyses find a monophyletic

Pholidosauridae Pholidosauridae is an extinct 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 Amer ...

that includes ''Elosuchus'', while other analyses find ''Elosuchus'' to nest with taxa like '' Sarcosuchus'' in a clade as a sister-taxon to the node Dyrosauridae+Pholidosauridae.

References

Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Africa Fossil taxa described in 2002 Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera Prehistoric marine crocodylomorphs Fossils of Algeria Fossils of Morocco Neosuchians Cenomanian genera {{paleo-archosaur-stub