Tethysuchia

Tethysuchia Temporal range: Bathonian–Ypresian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Pholidosaurus purbeckensis skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Crocodylomorpha
Clade:	Neosuchia
Suborder:	†Tethysuchia Buffetaut, 1982

Tethysuchia is an extinct clade of neosuchian mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs from the late Middle Jurassic (Bathonian stage) to the Early Eocene (Ypresian stage) of Asia, Europe, North America and South America.^[1] It was named by the French paleontologist Eric Buffetaut in 1982 as a suborder.^[2] Tethysuchia was considered to be a synonym of Dyrosauridae or Pholidosauridae for many years. In most phylogenetic analyses the node Dyrosauridae+Pholidosauridae was strongly supported. de Andrade et al. (2011) suggested to resurrect Tethysuchia for that node. They defined it as a node-based taxon which "composed of Pholidosaurus purbeckensis (Mansel-Pleydell, 1888) and Dyrosaurus phosphaticus (Thomas, 1893), their common ancestor and all its descendants". In their analysis they found that the support for Tethysuchia is actually stronger than the support for Thalattosuchia. The following cladogram shows the position of Tethysuchia among the Neosuchia sensu this study.^[1]

Neosuchia	Atoposauridae Theriosuchus pusillus Theriosuchus guimarotae Rugosuchus Bernissartia Eusuchia Stolokrosuchus Goniopholididae Thalattosuchia Tethysuchia Elosuchidae Sarcosuchus hartti Sarcosuchus imperator Vectisuchus Elosuchus Pholidosauridae Pholidosaurus schaumburgensis Dyrosauridae Congosaurus Guarinisuchus Dyrosaurus maghribensis Dyrosaurus phosphaticus

References

1. 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.
2. Eric Buffetaut (1982). "Radiation evolutive, paléoécologie et biogéographie des crocodiliens mésosuchiens". Memoires de la Societé Géologique de France 142: 1–88.