| Elosuchus Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
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| Skull of E. cherifiensis | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Archosauria |
| Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
| Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Family: | † Pholidosauridae |
| Genus: | † Elosuchus de Broin, 2002 |
| Species | |
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Elosuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform that lived during the Middle Cretaceous of what is now Africa (Niger, Morocco, and Algeria).
Elosuchus had an elongated snout like a gharial and was probably a fully aquatic animal. The type species, E. cherifiensis from Algeria and Morocco, was originally described as a species of Thoracosaurus by Lavocat, [2] but was recognized as a genus separate from Thoracosaurus by de Broin in 2002. Elosuchus felixi, described from the Echkar Formation of Niger, was renamed Fortignathus in 2016 and is either a dyrosaurid relative or a non-hyposaurine dyrosaurid. [3] [4] The largest known skull indicates a body length of up to 7.7 metres (25 ft). In that study, an 8-metre (26 ft) length was extrapolated for Elosuchus from a skull estimated at 1.08 m (3.5 ft) long. [1] In 2022, a larger specimen was referred to the genus, suggesting a maximum skull length of 1.35 m (4.4 ft). [5]
de Broin (2002) created the family Elosuchidae to contain Elosuchus and the genus Stolokrosuchus from Niger. [3] However, recent phylogenetic analyses usually find Stolokrosuchus to be one of the basalmost neosuchian, only distantly related to Elosuchus. [6] [7] [8] [9] Some analyses find a monophyletic Pholidosauridae that includes Elosuchus, [8] while other analyses find Elosuchus to nest with taxa like Sarcosuchus in a clade as a sister-taxon to the node Dyrosauridae+Pholidosauridae. [7] [9]
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