Protosuchia Temporal range:
Late Triassic -
Late Cretaceous
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A skeleton of Protosuchus richardsoni in the American Museum of Natural History | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauria |
Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
Clade: | Crocodyliformes |
Informal group: | †
Protosuchia Mook, 1934 |
Subgroups | |
Protosuchia is a group of extinct Mesozoic crocodyliforms. They were small in size (~1 meter in length) and terrestrial. In phylogenetic terms, Protosuchia is considered an informal group because it is a grade of basal crocodyliforms, not a true clade.
Recent phylogenetic analyses have not supported Protosuchia as a natural group. However, two studies found a clade of Late Triassic- Early Jurassic animals: [1] [2]
Both of these studies also found a clade more closely related to Hsisosuchus and Mesoeucrocodylia consisting of Late Jurassic- Late Cretaceous genera: [1] [2]
However, other possible protosuchians from the Late Cretaceous of China- Mongolia, the Gobiosuchidae ( Gobiosuchus and Zaraasuchus), have been found to be either intermediate between these two clades, [1] or members of the Sichuanosuchus clade. [2] There is also another family of Late Jurassic- Late Cretaceous genera, the Shartegosuchidae (e.g. Kyasuchus, Shartegosuchus and Nominosuchus).
Below is a cladogram from Fiorelli and Calvo (2007). [2] Protosuchians are marked by the green bracket.
Protosuchians |