Sebecids | |
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Skull of Sebecus icaeorhinus | |
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Skeleton of Ogresuchus | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauria |
Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
Clade: | Crocodyliformes |
Clade: | † Notosuchia |
Clade: | † Sebecosuchia |
Clade: | † Sebecia |
Family: | † Sebecidae Simpson, 1937 |
Subgroups | |
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Synonyms | |
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Sebecidae is an extinct family of prehistoric terrestrial sebecosuchian crocodylomorphs, known from the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic of Europe and South America. They were the latest surviving group of non-crocodilian crocodylomorphs.
The oldest known member of the group is Ogresuchus furatus known from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Tremp Formation (Spain). [2] Other records of the group are known from the Eocene of Europe. [3] Sebecids were diverse, abundant and broadly distributed in South America (mostly in Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia) during the Cenozoic, from the Paleocene until the Middle Miocene; [4] although it has been suggested that at least some forms could have survived until the Miocene-Pliocene boundary in Brazil. [5]
This group included many medium- and large-sized genera, from Sebecus to the giant 6-metre-long (20 ft) Barinasuchus from the Miocene. [6] They are thought to have served as apex terrestrial predators of their ecosystems. [7]
Juan Leardi and colleagues in 2024 defined Sebecidae in PhyloCode as "the least inclusive clade containing Sebecus icaeorhinus , Bretesuchus bonapartei , Barinasuchus arveloi , and Sahitisuchus fluminensis ". [8] The following cladogram simplified after Diego Pol and Jaime E. Powell (2011). [4]