Gryposuchinae
| Gryposuchinae Temporal range: Late Oligocene - Holocene, 25–0.117 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Crocodilia |
| Family: | Gavialidae |
| Subfamily: |
†Gryposuchinae Vélez-Juarbe et al., 2007 |
| Subgroups | |
Gryposuchinae is an extinct subfamily of gavialid crocodylians. Gryposuchines lived mainly in South America during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs, though "Gavialis" papuensis survived more recently into the Late /Holocene. Most were long-snouted coastal forms. The group was named in 2007 and includes genera such as Gryposuchus and Aktiogavialis.
Gryposuchines have long, narrow snouts and protruding eye sockets. One distinguishing feature of the group is the lack of a large exposure of the prootic bone around the trigeminal foramen, a hole in the side of the braincase wall.
Gryposuchinae was named in 2007 as a subfamily of closely related gavialid crocodilians. It was defined as a stem-based taxon including Gryposuchus jessei and all crocodilians more closely related to it than to Gavialis gangeticus (the gharial) or Tomistoma schlegelii (the False gharial). Other gavialoids from the Americas include thoracosaurs from the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene and long-snouted tomistomines from the Eocene, but neither of these groups are closely related to gryposuchines. The relationship of tomistomines in particular is unclear, as they have also been classified as crocodiles.
A phylogenetic analysis conducted in the 2007 study found Gryposuchinae to include the genera Aktiogavialis, Gryposuchus, Ikanogavialis, Piscogavialis, and Siquisiquesuchus. Below is a cladogram from the 2007 analysis showing the phylogenetic relationships of gryposuchines among gavialoids:
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