Atoposauridae

Last updated

Atoposauridae
Temporal range: Late Jurassic–Late Cretaceous
Atoposaurus oberndorfi Teylers.JPG
Only known specimen of Atoposaurus oberndorfi
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauria
Clade: Pseudosuchia
Clade: Crocodylomorpha
Clade: Crocodyliformes
Clade: Eusuchia
Family: Atoposauridae
Gervais, 1871
Genera
Synonyms
  • AlligatorellidaeTornier, 1933

Atoposauridae is a family of crocodile-like archosaurs belonging to Neosuchia. [1] The majority of the family are known from Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous marine deposits in France, Portugal, and Bavaria in southern Germany. [2] [3] [4] The discovery of the genus Aprosuchus , however, extends the duration of the lineage to the end of the Cretaceous in Romania. [5]

Contents

Classification

Phylogeny

Cladogram modified from Buscalioni and Sanz (1988) [1] and Buscalioni and Sanz (1990): [6]

Atoposauridae 

Related Research Articles

<i>Goniopholis</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Goniopholis is an extinct genus of goniopholidid crocodyliform that lived in Europe and North America during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Like other goniopholidids, it resembled living crocodilians, and probably had a similar ecology as semi-aquatic ambush predators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Notosuchia</span> Extinct suborder of reptiles

Notosuchia is a suborder of primarily Gondwanan mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Some phylogenies recover Sebecosuchia as a clade within Notosuchia, others as a sister group ; if Sebecosuchia is included within Notosuchia its existence is pushed into the Middle Miocene, about 11 million years ago. Fossils have been found from South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Notosuchia was a clade of terrestrial crocodilians that evolved a range of feeding behaviours, including herbivory (Chimaerasuchus), omnivory (Simosuchus), and terrestrial hypercarnivory (Baurusuchus). It included many members with highly derived traits unusual for crocodylomorphs, including mammal-like teeth, flexible bands of shield-like body armor similar to those of armadillos (Armadillosuchus), and possibly fleshy cheeks and pig-like snouts (Notosuchus). The suborder was first named in 1971 by Zulma Gasparini and has since undergone many phylogenetic revisions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baurusuchidae</span> Extinct family of reptiles

Baurusuchidae is a Gondwanan family of mesoeucrocodylians that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It is a group of terrestrial hypercarnivorous crocodilians from South America and possibly Pakistan. Baurusuchidae has been, in accordance with the PhyloCode, officially defined as the least inclusive clade containing Cynodontosuchus rothi, Pissarrachampsa sera, and Baurusuchus pachecoi. Baurusuchids have been placed in the suborder Baurusuchia, and two subfamilies have been proposed: Baurusuchinae and Pissarrachampsinae.

<i>Alligatorellus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Alligatorellus is an extinct genus of atoposaurid crocodyliform found in France that was related to Atoposaurus.

<i>Alligatorium</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Alligatorium is an extinct genus of atoposaurid crocodylomorph from Late Jurassic marine deposits in France.

Hoplosuchus is a genus of crocodyliform belonging to Protosuchidae. It is so far only known definitely from one specimen, a skeleton collected from sandstone of the Upper Jurassic-age Morrison Formation rocks at Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, during road construction. The individual was small, approximately 20 centimetres (7.9 in) long, although it may have been very young. It is the basalmost crocodyliform of the Morrison Formation, as suggested by such attributes as still having antorbital fenestrae in the skull. The limbs were relatively long, suggesting that the animal was terrestrial. Two rows of bony scutes ran down the back. The crowns of the teeth are not well preserved, so the diet cannot be determined with certainty. Given its small size, it probably ate insects and small vertebrates; it may have been carnivorous or omnivorous.

<i>Atoposaurus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Atoposaurus is an extinct genus of crocodylomorph. It is the type genus of the family Atoposauridae. Fossils have been found that were Late Jurassic in age from two distinct species in France and Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neosuchia</span> Clade of reptiles

Neosuchia is a clade within Mesoeucrocodylia that includes all modern extant crocodilians and their closest fossil relatives. It is defined as the most inclusive clade containing all crocodylomorphs more closely related to Crocodylus niloticus than to Notosuchus terrestris. Members of Neosuchia generally share a crocodilian-like bodyform adapted to freshwater aquatic life, as opposed to the terrestrial habits of more basal crocodylomorph groups. The earliest neosuchian is suggested to be the Early Jurassic Calsoyasuchus, which lived during the Sinemurian and Pliensbachian stages in North America. It is often identified as a member of Goniopholididae, though this is disputed, and the taxon may lie outside Neosuchia, which places the earliest records of the group in the Middle Jurassic.

Brillanceausuchus is an extinct genus of paralligatorid crocodyliforms. Fossils have been found in Early Cretaceous–age rocks of Cameroon. The genus is notable for the position of the secondary choana within its palate. Parts of the pterygoid bones make up the rostral margin of the choana and thus separate it from the palatines, a feature also seen in the more advanced neosuchian suborder Eusuchia. This characteristic was once thought to be characteristic of Eusuchia, but its presence in Brillanceausuchus suggests that the trait is homoplasic, thus making the evolution of the position of the choana within crocodilians more complex than previously thought.

<i>Iharkutosuchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Iharkutosuchus is an extinct genus of basal eusuchian crocodyliform. Its fossils have been found in the Santonian-age Upper Cretaceous Csehbánya Formation in the Bakony Mountains of western Hungary.

Stolokrosuchus is an extinct genus of crocodyliforms that lived during the Early Cretaceous. Its fossils, including a skull with a long thin snout and bony knobs on the prefrontal, have been found in Niger. Stolokrosuchus was described in 2000 by Hans Larsson and Boubacar Gado. The type species is S. lapparenti. They initially described it as related to Peirosauridae, if not a member of that family. One study has shown it to be related to Elosuchus. However, more recent works usually find Stolokrosuchus to be one of the basalmost neosuchian, only distantly related to the elosuchid or pholidosaurid, Elosuchus. It was a semiaquatic crocodylomorph.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hylaeochampsidae</span> Extinct family of reptiles

Hylaeochampsidae is an extinct family of basal eusuchian crocodylomorphs thought to be closely related to the order Crocodylia.

<i>Montsecosuchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Montsecosuchus is an extinct genus of atoposaurid crocodylomorphs. It is the replacement generic name for Alligatorium depereti, which was described in 1915 from the Montsec Lithographic Limestone quarry of Spain. Fossils found from this locality are from the Early Cretaceous, being Upper Berriasian-Lower Valanginian in age, belonging to the La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation While many publications concerning atoposaurids after 1915 have included mentions of A. depereti, none has offered a redescription or revision of the species, though some recognized that great differences existed between it and other members of the genus. In these publications, the skull of A. depereti was shorter in relation to body length than any other species of Alligatorium, and this may have been evidence for the genetic distinction of the species, although no replacement name was proposed. However, better preparation of the holotype specimen MGB 512, a nearly complete articulated skeleton embedded in a limestone matrix now housed in the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, allowed for a revision of the species in 1990 in which the name Montsecosuchus was first used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ziphosuchia</span> Extinct clade of reptiles

Ziphosuchia is a clade of mesoeucrocodylian crocodyliforms that includes notosuchians and sebecosuchians.

<i>Theriosuchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Theriosuchus is an extinct genus of atoposaurid neosuchian from Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous of Europe, Southeast Asia (Thailand) and western North America (Wyoming), with fragmentary records from Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous sites in China, Morocco, and Scotland.

Shantungosuchus is an extinct genus of Early Cretaceous crocodyliform found in China. It includes three species: Shantungosuchus chuhsienensis and S. brachycephalus, which were both described by Yang Zhongjian – usually referred to as "Young" – in 1961 and 1982, and S. hangjinensis, which was described by Xiao-Chun Wu et al in 1994. S. chuhsienensis is the type for this genus.

Paluxysuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform known from the Early Cretaceous Twin Mountains Formation of north-central Texas. It contains a single species, Paluxysuchus newmani. Paluxysuchus is one of three crocodyliforms known from the Early Cretaceous of Texas, the others being Pachycheilosuchus and an unnamed species referred to as the "Glen Rose Form". Paluxysuchus has a long, flat skull that is probably transitional between the long and narrow skulls of many early neosuchians and the short and flat skulls of later neosuchians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allodaposuchidae</span> Extinct clade of reptiles

Allodaposuchidae is an extinct clade of eusuchians that lived in Europe during the Late Cretaceous (Santonian-Maastrichtian).

Sabresuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform from the Cretaceous of Europe. The name is derived from 'Sabre' in reference to the enlarged and curved fifth maxillary tooth, and 'suchus' from the Ancient Greek for crocodile.

<i>Knoetschkesuchus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Knoetschkesuchus is a genus of small atoposaurid crocodylomorph from the Late Jurassic of Germany and Portugal. Two species are known: the German species K. langenbergensis, described by Schwarz and colleagues in 2017 based on two partial skeletons and various isolated bones; and the Portuguese species K. guimarotae, named from over 400 specimens including several partial skeletons. Knoetschkesuchus was a small and short-snouted crocodilian, measuring about 55 centimetres (22 in) in length, that primarily fed on small prey, including invertebrates, amphibians, and mammals. This specialization towards small prey ecologically separated Knoetschkesuchus from most of the other diverse crocodilians that it lived with in the island ecosystem of Jurassic Europe.

References

  1. 1 2 Buscalioni, Angela D; José Luis Sanz (1988). "Phylogenetic relationships of the Atoposauridae (Archosauria, Crocodylomorpha)". Historical Biology. 1 (3): 233–250. Bibcode:1988HBio....1..233B. doi: 10.1080/08912968809386477 .
  2. Tennant, Jonathan P.; Mannion, Philip D.; Upchurch, Paul (2016). "Evolutionary relationships and systematics of Atoposauridae (Crocodylomorpha: Neosuchia): implications for the rise of Eusuchia" (PDF). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 177 (4): 854–936. doi: 10.1111/zoj.12400 .
  3. Schwarz, Daniela; Raddatz, Maik; Wings, Oliver (2017-02-15). "Knoetschkesuchus langenbergensis gen. nov. sp. nov., a new atoposaurid crocodyliform from the Upper Jurassic Langenberg Quarry (Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany), and its relationships to Theriosuchus". PLOS ONE. 12 (2): e0160617. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1260617S. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0160617 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   5310792 . PMID   28199316.
  4. Tennant, Jonathan P.; Mannion, Philip D. (2014-09-25). "Revision of the Late Jurassic crocodyliform Alligatorellus, and evidence for allopatric speciation driving high diversity in western European atoposaurids". PeerJ. 2: e599. doi: 10.7717/peerj.599 . ISSN   2167-8359. PMC   4179893 . PMID   25279270.
  5. Márton Venczel; Vlad A. Codrea (2019). "A new Theriosuchus-like crocodyliform from the Maastrichtian of Romania". Cretaceous Research. 100: 24–38. Bibcode:2019CrRes.100...24V. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2019.03.018. S2CID   133729562.
  6. Buscalioni, A. D.; Sanz, J. L. (1990). "Montsecosuchus depereti (Crocodylomorpha, Atoposauridae), new denomination for Alligatorium depereti Vidal, 1915 (Early Cretaceous, Spain): Redescription and phylogenetic relationships". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 10 (2): 244–254. Bibcode:1990JVPal..10..244B. doi:10.1080/02724634.1990.10011810.