Alligatoroidea

Alligatoroidea
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous - Recent, 83.5–0 Ma
Alligators (shown above) and caimans are living members of the superfamily Alligatoroidea.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Crocodylomorpha
Order: Crocodilia
Clade: Brevirostres
Superfamily: Alligatoroidea
Gray, 1844
Subgroups

Alligatoroidea is a superfamily of crocodilians that evolved in the Late Cretaceous period. Cladistically, alligatoroidea is Alligator mississippiensis (the American alligator) and all crocodylians more closely related to A. mississippiensis than to either Crocodylus niloticus (the Nile crocodile) or Gavialis gangeticus (the gharial).[1]

References

  1. Brochu, Christopher A. (May 2003). "Phylogenetic approaches toward crocodylian history". Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 31: 360. doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.31.100901.141308.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, December 26, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.