Protosuchia
| Protosuchians Temporal range: Late Triassic - Late Cretaceous |
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| A skeleton of Protosuchus richardsoni in the American Museum of Natural History | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| 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:
Both of these studies also found a clade more closely related to Hsisosuchus and Mesoeucrocodylia consisting of Late Jurassic-Late Cretaceous genera:
However, other possible protosuchians from the Late Cretaceous of China-Mongolia, the Gobiosuchidae (Gobiosuchus and Zaraasuchus), have been found to either intermediate between these two clades, or members of the Sichuanosuchus clade. 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). Protosuchians are marked by the green bracket.
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