Orientalosuchina Temporal range: Maastrichtian-Eocene, | |
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Partial skull and jaw of Protoalligator huiningensis , on display at the Paleozoological Museum of China | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauromorpha |
Clade: | Archosauriformes |
Order: | Crocodilia |
Superfamily: | Alligatoroidea |
Clade: | Globidonta |
Clade: | † Orientalosuchina Massonne et al., 2019 |
Genera | |
Orientalosuchina is an extinct clade of alligatoroid crocodylians from Southeast and East Asia that lived between Maastrichtian and Eocene.
The clade was named as the result of a 2019 study by Massonne et al. that included several extinct alligatoroid taxa from Asia and found that they were all closely related and together formed a monophyletic clade as basal members of Alligatoroidea, as shown in the cladogram below: [1] They defined this clade as "the most inclusive clade containing Orientalosuchus naduongensis , Krabisuchus siamogallicus , Eoalligator chunyii , Jiangxisuchus nankangensis and Protoalligator huiningensis , but not Brachychampsa montana , Stangerochampsa mccabei , Leidyosuchus canadensis , Diplocynodon darwini , Bottosaurus harlani , or any species of recent Crocodylia ".
Alligatoroidea |
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Some studies have disputed this placement of Jiangxisuchus within Orientalosuchina as an alligatoroid, instead recovering Jiangxisuchus as a basal member of Crocodyloidea. [2] [3]
Ceratosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatorine crocodylian from latest Paleocene rocks of Colorado's Piceance Basin and earliest Eocene rocks of Wyoming's Bighorn Basin in North America, a slice of time known as the Clarkforkian North American Land Mammal Age. Like its modern relatives, Ceratosuchus was a swamp-dwelling predator. It is named for the pair of flattened, triangular bony plates that extend from the back of its head.
Diplocynodon is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian that lived during the Paleocene to Middle Miocene in Europe. Some species may have reached lengths of 3 metres (9.8 ft), while others probably did not exceed 1 metre (3.3 ft). They are almost exclusively found in freshwater environments. The various species are thought to have been opportunistic aquatic predators.
Wannaganosuchus is an extinct genus of small alligatorid crocodilian. It was found in Late Paleocene-age rocks of Billings County, North Dakota, United States.
Procaimanoidea is an extinct genus of alligatorid from the Eocene of North America. It was named posthumously in 1946 by Charles W. Gilmore; the type species is P. utahensis, from the Uintan of Utah. It is based on USNM 15996, a nearly complete skull and partial left hind leg. A second species, P. kayi, was named in 1941 by C.C. Mook as a species of Hassiacosuchus, for remains from the Bridgerian of Wyoming. It was reassigned to Procaimanoidea in 1967 by Wassersug and Hecht.
Leidyosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatoroid from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta. It was named in 1907 by Lawrence Lambe, and the type species is L. canadensis. It is known from a number of specimens from the middle Campanian age Dinosaur Park Formation. It was a medium-sized alligatoroid, with a maximum skull length greater than 40 centimeters (16 in).
Eoalligator is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian from Paleocene deposits in China.
Alligatoroidea is one of three superfamilies of crocodylians, the other two being Crocodyloidea and Gavialoidea. Alligatoroidea evolved in the Late Cretaceous period, and consists of the alligators and caimans, as well as extinct members more closely related to the alligators than the two other groups.
Allognathosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatorine crocodylian with a complicated taxonomic history. It was named in 1921.
Navajosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatorine crocodylian. Its fossils have been found in the Paleocene-age Nacimiento Formation of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico. It was named in 1942 by Charles C. Mook, and the original type species was N. novomexicanus. N. novomexicanus was based on AMNH 5186, a partial skull collected in 1913. Later research showed that Navajosuchus novomexicanus was the same as the earlier-named Allognathosuchus mooki. However, A. mooki does not belong to the genus Allognathosuchus, and so the name of the crocodilian becomes Navajosuchus mooki. Under whichever name is used, this animal would have been a generalized predator of the Nacimiento floodplains. It was the most common Nacimiento Formation crocodilian, found in both the Puercan and Torrejonian faunal assemblages.
Acynodon is an extinct genus of eusuchian crocodylomorph from the Late Cretaceous, with fossils found throughout Southern Europe.
Arambourgia is an extinct monotypic genus of alligatorine crocodylian from Europe. It was named in 1905 as Allognathosuchus gaudryi. It was made a separate genus Arambourgia in 1940. This was synonymized with Allognathosuchus haupti in 1990, but later reassigned as its own genus once again in 2004. Arambourgia was likely to have been part of an early dispersal event of alligatorines from North America to Europe during the Eocene epoch. Arambourgia had non-serrated teeth and a deep orienirostral snout, unlike the flatter snouts of most other alligatorids.
Bottosaurus is an extinct genus of alligatorid from the Late Cretaceous-Early Paleocene of New Jersey, Texas, and possibly North Carolina and South Carolina. Two species are currently accepted, with a third requiring re-evaluation.
Brachychampsa is an extinct genus of alligatorid, possibly a basal caiman. Specimens have been reported from New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota, New Jersey, and Saskatchewan, though only those from Montana, Utah, and New Mexico are based on material sufficient to justify the referral. Some specimens have been reported from the Campanian-aged deposits of Central Asia, although the species status is indeterminate for these fossils. The genus first appeared during the late Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous and became extinct during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Cretaceous. Brachychampsa is distinguished by an enlarged fifth maxillary tooth in the upper jaw.
Stangerochampsa is an extinct genus of alligatorid, possibly an alligatorine or a stem-caiman, from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta. It is based on RTMP.86.61.1, a skull, partial lower jaws, and partial postcranial skeleton discovered in the late Campanian–early Maastrichtian-age Horseshoe Canyon Formation. Stangerochampsa was described in 1996 by Wu and colleagues. The type species is S. mccabei. The generic name honors the Stanger family, the owners of the ranch where the specimen was found, and the species name honors James Ross McCabe, who discovered, collected, and prepared it. Stangerochampsa is described as "small to medium–sized"; the type skull is 20.0 centimetres (7.9 in) long from the tip of the snout to the occipital condyle, and is 13.0 centimetres (5.1 in) wide at its greatest, while the thigh bone is 14.2 centimetres (5.6 in) long. It had heterodont dentition, with large crushing teeth at the rear of the jaws.
Krabisuchus is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodylian that existed in what is now Thailand during the Late Eocene. It was first named by paleontologists Jeremy A. Martin and Komsorn Lauprasert in 2010, and the type species is K. siamogallicus. Fossils have been found from the Krabi Basin of southern Thailand and include mostly cranial and mandibular elements as well as some postcranial remains. Krabisuchus is currently the most well known primitive alligatoroid from Asia; previously, these animals were only represented in Asia by a few fragmentary remains from China. The fossil record of alligatoroids is much more extensive in Europe and North America, where most taxa have been described.
Globidonta is a clade of alligatoroids that includes alligators, caimans, and closely related extinct forms. It is defined as a stem-based clade including Alligator mississippiensis and all forms more closely related to it than to Diplocynodon. The group's fossil range extends back into the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous with early alligatoroids such as Albertochampsa and Brachychampsa. Extinct globidontans were particularly common in North America and Eurasia, and their modern range also includes South America.
Culebrasuchus is an extinct, monotypic genus of caiman alligatorid known from the Early to Middle Miocene (Hemingfordian) of the Panama Canal Zone of Panama. It contains a single species, Culebrasuchus mesoamericanus.
Protoalligator is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian found in the Anhui province of China and lived during the Paleocene.
Orientalosuchus is an extinct genus of alligatoroid crocodilian from the Late Eocene that was found in the Na Duong Formation in Vietnam.
Jiangxisuchus is an extinct genus of crocodylian that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now China. It was described in 2019, and was proposed to be a basal member of Crocodyloidea. However, another concurrent 2019 study recovered Jiangxisuchus instead as a basal member of Alligatoroidea, within the newly named clade Orientalosuchina.