Elosuchus
| Elosuchus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Skull of E. cherifiensis | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Family: | †Pholidosauridae |
| Genus: | †Elosuchus de Broin, 2002 |
| Species | |
| |
Elosuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform that lived during the Early Cretaceous of what is now North Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Niger). Elosuchus had an elongated snout like a gharial and was probably a fully aquatic animal. The genus contains two species, E. cherifiensis from Algeria and Morocco, formerly described as a species of Thoracosaurus by Lavocat,[1] and E. felixi from Niger. The genus has been recognized to be separate from Thoracosaurus by de Broin in 2002.[2]
Phylogeny
de Broin (2002) created the family Elosuchidae to contain Elosuchus and the genus Stolokrosuchus from Niger.[2] However, recent phylogenetic analyses usually find Stolokrosuchus to be one of the basalmost neosuchian, only distantly related to Elosuchus.[3][4][5][6] Some analyses find a monophyletic Pholidosauridae that includes Elosuchus,[5] while other analyses find Elosuchus to nest with taxa like Sarcosuchus in a clade as a sister-taxon to the node Dyrosauridae+Pholidosauridae.[4][6]
References
- ↑ Lavocat, R., 1955, Decouverte d'un Crocodilien du genre Thoracosaurus dans le Cretace Superiuer d'Afrique: Bulletin du Museum National d'Historie Naturelle, Paris, v. 2, n. 27, p. 338-340.
- 1 2 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.
- ↑ Turner, Alan H.; Sertich, Joseph J. W. (2010). "Phylogenetic history of Simosuchus clarki (Crocodyliformes: Notosuchia) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30 (6, Memoir 10): 177–236. doi:10.1080/02724634.2010.532348.
- 1 2 Marco Brandalise de Andrade, Richard Edmonds, Michael J. Benton and Remmert Schouten (2011). "A new Berriasian species of Goniopholis (Mesoeucrocodylia, Neosuchia) from England, and a review of the genus". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 163 (s1): S66–S108. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00709.x.
- 1 2 Daniel Fortier, Daniel Perea and Cesar Schultz (2011). "Redescription and phylogenetic relationships of Meridiosaurus vallisparadisi, a pholidosaurid from the Late Jurassic of Uruguay". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 163 (s1): S66–S108. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00709.x.
- 1 2 Bronzati, M.; Montefeltro, F. C.; Langer, M. C. (2012). "A species-level supertree of Crocodyliformes". Historical Biology: 1. doi:10.1080/08912963.2012.662680.