Sphagesauridae is a
Gondwana
Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia (continent), Australia, Zea ...
n family of
mesoeucrocodylia
Mesoeucrocodylia is the clade that includes Eusuchia and crocodyliforms formerly placed in the paraphyletic group Mesosuchia. The group appeared during the Early Jurassic, and continues to the present day.
Diagnosis
It was long known that Me ...
ns that lived during the
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...
. It was a
clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...
of terrestrial crocodilians that evolved very mammal-like teeth and jaws.
[MARINHO, T.S. & CARVALHO, I.S. Revision of the Sphagesauridae KUHN, 1968 (Crocodyliformes, Mesoeucrocodylia). In: CARVALHO, I.S.; CASSAB, R.C.T.; SCHWANKE, C.; CARVALHO, M.A.; FERNANDES, A.C.S.; RODRIGUES, M.A.; CARVALHO, M.S.S.; ARAI, M.; OLIVEIRA, M.E.Q. (Orgs.). Paleontologia: Cenários de Vida. 1 ed. Rio de Janeiro: Interciência, 2007, v.1, p.589-599.][Pol D. 2003. New remains of ''Sphagesaurus huenei'' (Crocodylomorpha: Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 23 (4): 817–831.] Both ''
Sphagesaurus'' and ''
Adamantinasuchus'' are known from the
Turonian
The Turonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, the second age (geology), age in the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch, or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Upper Cretaceous series (stratigraphy), ...
to
Santonian
The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya ( million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 m ...
of
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
.
[Candeiro CRA, Martinelli AG, Avilla LS, Rich TH. 2006. Tetrapods from the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian-Maastrichtian) Bauru Group of Brazil: a reappraisal. ''Cretaceous Research'' 27 (6): 923-946.][Nobre PH, Carvalho IS. 2006. ''Adamantinasuchus navae'': A new Gondwanan Crocodylomorpha (Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. ''Gondwana Research'' 10: 370–378.]
References
Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs
Terrestrial crocodylomorphs
Late Cretaceous first appearances
Late Cretaceous extinctions
Pseudosuchian families
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