Mystriosuchini, historically known as Pseudopalatinae, is an extinct
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...
(formerly subfamily) of derived
phytosaur
Phytosaurs (Φυτόσαυροι in Greek, meaning 'plant lizard') are an extinct group of large, mostly semiaquatic Late Triassic archosauriform or basal archosaurian reptiles. Phytosaurs belong to the order Phytosauria and are sometimes ref ...
s in the clade Leptosuchomorpha. As with all other phytosaurs, mystriosuchins lived during
Late Triassic
The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch a ...
. The name is derived from the genus ''
Mystriosuchus
''Mystriosuchus'' (meaning "spoon-crocodile") Retrieved on May 25th, 2008. is an
Machaeroprosopus
''Machaeroprosopus'' (from , 'large knife' and , 'bordering on') is an extinct genus of mystriosuchin leptosuchomorph phytosaur from the Late Triassic of the southwestern United States. ''M. validus'', once thought to be the type species of ''M ...
'', ''
Mystriosuchus
''Mystriosuchus'' (meaning "spoon-crocodile") Retrieved on May 25th, 2008. is an
< ...
'', ''
Nicrosaurus
''Nicrosaurus'' (/nɪkroʊˈsɔrəs/) is an extinct genus of phytosaur reptile existing during the Late Triassic period. Although it looked like a crocodile (and probably lived like the more terrestrial crocodylomorphs), it was not closely relat ...
'' and ''
Redondasaurus
''Redondasaurus'' is an extinct genus or subgenus of phytosaur from the Late Triassic (late Norian or Rhaetian) of the southwestern United States. It was named by Hunt & Lucas in 1993, and contains two species, ''R. gregorii'' and ''R. bermani''. ...
''.Hungerbühler A. 2002. The Late Triassic phytosaur ''Mystriosuchus westphali'', with a revision of the genus. ''Palaeontology'' 45 (2): 377-418 It includes the most ecologically divergent phytosaurs, the terrestrial ''
Nicrosaurus
''Nicrosaurus'' (/nɪkroʊˈsɔrəs/) is an extinct genus of phytosaur reptile existing during the Late Triassic period. Although it looked like a crocodile (and probably lived like the more terrestrial crocodylomorphs), it was not closely relat ...
'' and the fully aquatic ''
Mystriosuchus
''Mystriosuchus'' (meaning "spoon-crocodile") Retrieved on May 25th, 2008. is an
< ...
''.Gozzi, E. & Renesto, S.A. 2003. Complete specimen of Mystriosuchus (Reptilia, Phytosauria) from the Norian (Late Triassic) of Lombardy (Northern Italy). Rivista Italiana Di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 109(3): 475-498.
Phylogeny
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 ...