Mahajangasuchidae

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Mahajangasuchidae
Temporal range: 95–66  Ma
Mahajangasuchus BW.jpg
Mahajangasuchus insignis
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Pseudosuchia
Superorder: Crocodylomorpha
Clade: Metasuchia
Family: Mahajangasuchidae
Sereno and Larsson, 2009 [1]
Genera

Mahajangasuchidae is an extinct family of notosuchian [2] [3] crocodyliforms. It currently contains two genera, Mahajangasuchus and Kaprosuchus , both of which lived during the Late Cretaceous in Gondwana. It is defined as the most inclusive clade containing Mahajangasuchus insignis but not Notosuchus terrestris , Simosuchus clarki , Araripesuchus gomesii , Baurusuchus pachecoi , Peirosaurus torminni , Goniopholis crassidens , Pholidosaurus schaumbergensis , or Crocodylus niloticus . [1] Phylogenetically, Mahajangasuchidae is placed just outside pholidosaurids and more derived neosuchians. [3]

Contents

Defining characters of the family include fused nasals, a jaw articulation below the posterior maxillary tooth row, a deep mandibular symphysis that is oriented anterodorsally, and the formation of a hornlike posterodorsal process from the squamosal and parietal (which is much more pronounced in Kaprosuchus).

Phylogeny

Skull of Kaprosuchus saharicus Kaprosuchus 2.jpg
Skull of Kaprosuchus saharicus

Cladogram showing the phylogenetic relationship of Mahajangasuchidae within Neosuchia after Sereno and Larsson, 2009: [1]

Neosuchia  

Sebecia

unnamed
 Mahajangasuchidae 

Mahajangasuchus

Kaprosuchus

unnamed

Pholidosauridae

unnamed

Laganosuchus

unnamed

Bernissartia

unnamed

Isisfordia

Crocodylia

In 2014, Mahajangasuchidae were grouped within Notosuchia: [2]

Notosuchia
Uruguaysuchidae

Araripesuchus tsangatsangana

Anatosuchus

Araripesuchus wegeneri

Araripesuchus buitreraensis

Araripesuchus gomesii

Araripesuchus patagonicus

Uruguaysuchus

Stolokrosuchus

Mahajangasuchidae

Kaprosuchus

Mahajangasuchus

Peirosauridae

Hamadasuchus

Gasparinisuchus

Lomasuchus

Montealtosuchus

Uberabasuchus

Candidodon

Ziphosuchia

Libycosuchus

Simosuchus

Malawisuchus

Pakasuchus

Morrinhosuchus

Notosuchus

Coringasuchus

Labidiosuchus

Mariliasuchus

Sphagesauridae

Adamantinasuchus

Yacarerani

Caipirasuchus stenognathus

Caipirasuchus paulistanus

Caipirasuchus montealtensis

Sphagesaurus

Armadillosuchus

Caryonosuchus

Chimaerasuchus

Comahuesuchus

Sebecosuchia

Pabwehshi

Baurusuchidae

Cynodontosuchus

Pissarrachampsa

Stratiotosuchus

Campinasuchus

Baurusuchus albertoi

Baurusuchus pachecoi

Baurusuchus salgadoensis

Bergisuchus

Iberosuchus

Sebecidae

Lorosuchus

Pehuenchesuchus

Barinasuchus

Ayllusuchus

Bretesuchus

Lumbrera form

Langstonia

Sebecus

Zulmasuchus

The cladogram following by Nicholl et al. 2021: [3]

Notosuchia
Uruguaysuchidae

Araripesuchus tsangatsangana

Anatosuchus

Araripesuchus wegeneri

Araripesuchus buitreraensis

Araripesuchus gomesii

Araripesuchus patagonicus

Uruguaysuchus

Mahajangasuchidae

Kaprosuchus

Mahajangasuchus

Peirosauridae

Stolokrosuchus

Bayomesasuchus

Hamadasuchus

Antaeusuchus

Miadanasuchus

Barrosasuchus

Gasparinisuchus

Rukwasuchus

Uberabasuchus

Lomasuchus

Montealtosuchus

Candidodon

Ziphosuchia

Libycosuchus

Simosuchus

Neuquensuchus

Pakasuchus

Malawisuchus

Xenodontosuchia
Sphagesauria

Morrinhosuchus

Llanosuchus

Notosuchus

Labidiosuchus

Mariliasuchus

Sphagesauridae

Adamantinasuchus

Yacarerani

Caipirasuchus

Sphagesaurus

Caryonosuchus

Armadillosuchus

Chimaerasuchus

Comahuesuchus

Razanandrongobe

Sebecosuchia
Baurusuchidae

Cynodontosuchus

Pissarrachampsa

Campinasuchus

Stratiosuchus

Baurusuchus

Bergisuchus

Iberosuchus

Sebecidae

Ayllusuchus

Bretesuchus

Barinasuchus

Ogresuchus

Sebecus

See also

Related Research Articles

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

Mahajangasuchus is an extinct genus of crocodyliform which had blunt, conical teeth. The type species, M. insignis, lived during the Late Cretaceous; its fossils have been found in the Maevarano Formation in northern Madagascar. It was a fairly large predator, measuring up to 4 metres (13 ft) long.

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

Anatosuchus is an extinct genus of notosuchian crocodylomorph discovered in Gadoufaoua, Niger, and described by a team of palaeontologists led by the American Paul Sereno in 2003, in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Its duck-like snout coincidentally makes it resemble a crocoduck, an imagined hybrid animal with the head of a crocodile and the body of a duck.

<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">Peirosauridae</span> Extinct family of reptiles

Peirosauridae is a Gondwanan family of mesoeucrocodylians that lived during the Cretaceous period. It was a clade of terrestrial crocodyliforms that evolved a rather dog-like form, and were terrestrial carnivores. It was phylogenetically defined in 2004 as the most recent common ancestor of Peirosaurus and Lomasuchinae and all of its descendants. Lomasuchinae is a subfamily of peirosaurids that includes the genus Lomasuchus.

<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.

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

Araripesuchus is a genus of extinct crocodyliform that existed during the Cretaceous period of the late Mesozoic era some 125 to 66 million years ago. Six species of Araripesuchus are currently known. They are generally considered to be notosuchians, characterized by their varied teeth types and distinct skull elements. This genus consists of six species: A. buitreraensis, discovered in Argentina, A. wegeneri, discovered in Cameroon and Niger, A. rattoides, discovered in Niger, A. tsangatsangana, discovered in Madagascar, A. gomesii, discovered in Brazil and another species discovered in Argentina, A. patagonicus.

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

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Stolokrosuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodylomorph 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.

<i>Kaprosuchus</i> Genus of crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous period

Kaprosuchus is an extinct genus of mahajangasuchid crocodyliform. It is known from a single nearly complete skull collected from the Upper Cretaceous Echkar Formation of Niger. The name means "boar crocodile" from the Greek κάπρος, kapros ("boar") and σοῦχος, soukhos ("crocodile") in reference to its unusually large caniniform teeth which resemble those of a boar. It has been nicknamed "BoarCroc" by Paul Sereno and Hans Larsson, who first described the genus in a monograph published in ZooKeys in 2009 along with other Saharan crocodyliformes such as Anatosuchus and Laganosuchus. The type species is K. saharicus.

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

Metasuchia is a major clade within the superorder Crocodylomorpha. It is split into two main groups, Notosuchia and Neosuchia. Notosuchia is an extinct group that contains primarily small-bodied Cretaceous taxa with heterodont dentition. Neosuchia includes the extant crocodylians and basal taxa, such as peirosaurids and pholidosaurids. It is phylogenetically defined by Sereno et al. (2001) as a clade containing Notosuchus terrestris, Crocodylus niloticus, and all descendants of their common ancestor.

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

Sebecia is an extinct clade of mesoeucrocodylian crocodyliforms that includes peirosaurids and sebecids. It was first constructed in 2007 to include Hamadasuchus, Peirosauridae, and Sebecus. It was initially considered to be the sister taxon of the clade Neosuchia, which includes living crocodilians, although some later studies have placed it within Neosuchia as a basal clade. Sebecians were terrestrial crocodyliforms characterized by their deep snouts and ziphodont dentition. They first appeared in the Late Cretaceous, survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, and became extinct in the Miocene epoch.

Sebecosuchia is an extinct group of mesoeucrocodylian crocodyliforms that includes the families Sebecidae and Baurusuchidae. The group was long thought to have first appeared in the Late Cretaceous with the baurusuchids and become extinct in the Miocene with the last sebecids, but Razanandrongobe pushes the origin of Sebecosuchia to the Middle Jurassic. Fossils have been found primarily from South America but have also been found in Europe, North Africa, Madagascar, and the Indian subcontinent.

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

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<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).

Gualicho is a genus of theropod dinosaur. The type species is Gualicho shinyae. It lived in what is now northern Patagonia, on what was then a South American island continent split off from the supercontinent Gondwana. The fossils were found in the Huincul Formation, dating to the late Cenomanian-early Turonian age of the upper Cretaceous Period, around 91 million years ago.

<i>Antaeusuchus</i> Genus of extinct animals

Antaeusuchus taouzensis is a species of peirosaurid notosuchian from the Late Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of Morocco. It was described in 2021, and it is the only species in the genus Antaeusuchus. It is the fourth notosuchian described from the region and the second Kem Kem peirosaurid after Hamadasuchus.

Barrosasuchus is a genus of peirosaurid notosuchian from the Santonian of Argentina and part of the extensive peirosaurid record of Late Cretaceous Patagonia. It contains one species, Barrosasuchus neuquenianus. B. neuquenianus is known from an almost complete skull and the majority of the articulated postcranial skeleton, making it the best preserved Patagonian peirosaurid.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sereno, Paul; Larsson, Hans (2009-11-19). "Cretaceous Crocodyliforms from the Sahara". ZooKeys (28): 1–143. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.28.325 . ISSN   1313-2970.
  2. 1 2 Pol, D.; Nascimento, P. M.; Carvalho, A. B.; Riccomini, C.; Pires-Domingues, R. A.; Zaher, H. (2014). "A New Notosuchian from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil and the Phylogeny of Advanced Notosuchians". PLOS ONE. 9 (4): e93105. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...993105P. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093105 . PMC   3973723 . PMID   24695105.
  3. 1 2 3 Nicholl CS, Hunt ES, Ouarhache D, Mannion PD (2021). "A second peirosaurid crocodyliform from the Mid-Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of Morocco and the diversity of Gondwanan notosuchians outside South America". Royal Society Open Science. 8 (10): Article ID 211254. doi: 10.1098/rsos.211254 . PMC   8511751 . PMID   34659786.