Biology:Tethysuchia

Tethysuchia is an extinct clade of neosuchian mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs from the late Middle Jurassic (Bathonian stage) to the Early Eocene (Ypresian stage) of Asia, Europe, North America and South America. It was named by the French paleontologist Eric Buffetaut in 1982 as a suborder. Tethysuchia was considered to be a synonym of Dyrosauridae or Pholidosauridae for many years. In most phylogenetic analyses the node Dyrosauridae+Pholidosauridae was strongly supported. De Andrade et al. (2011) suggested that Tethysuchia be resurrected for that node. They defined it as a node-based taxon "composed of Pholidosaurus purbeckensis (Mansel-Pleydell, 1888) and Dyrosaurus phosphaticus (Thomas, 1893), their common ancestor and all its descendants". In their analysis they found that the support for Tethysuchia is actually stronger than the support for Thalattosuchia. The following cladogram shows the position of Tethysuchia among the Neosuchia (with respect to the definition of Neosuchia used by this study).

Neosuchia

Atoposauridae   Theriosuchus pusillus     Theriosuchus guimarotae           Rugosuchus       Bernissartia     Eusuchia           Stolokrosuchus       Goniopholididae       Thalattosuchia   Tethysuchia Elosuchidae     Sarcosuchus hartti     Sarcosuchus imperator         Vectisuchus     Elosuchus         Pholidosauridae Pholidosaurus schaumburgensis   Dyrosauridae   Congosaurus     Guarinisuchus       Dyrosaurus maghribensis     Dyrosaurus phosphaticus

The cladogram below is from study in 2024 by Forêt and colleagues on the interrelationships of tethysuchians.

Tethysuchia

Pholidosauridae   Meridiosaurus vallisparadisi         Pholidosaurus cherves       Pholidosaurus purbeckensis     Pholidosaurus schaumbergensis             Woodbinesuchus byersmauricei     Oceanosuchus boecensis     Sabinosuchus coahuilensis           Sarcosuchus imperator     Sarcosuchus hartii     Chalawan thailandicus         Dakotasuchus kingi     MHNM-kh01     Terminonaris browni     Terminonaris robusta             Dyrosauroidea   Vectisuchus leptognathus       Elosuchus cherifiensis       Elosuchus broinae   Dyrosauridae   Chenanisuchus lateroculi       Brachiosuchus kababishensis       Anthracosuchus balrogus       Cerrejonisuchus improcerus     Phosphatosaurinae   Phosphatosaurus gavialoides     Sokotosuchus ianwilsoni         Rodeosuchus machukiru   Hyposaurinae   Dorbignysuchus niatu         Hyposaurus derbianus     Hyposaurus natator           Arambourgisuchus khouribgaensis     Luciasuchus lurusinqai       Dyrosaurus phosphaticus     Dyrosaurus maghribensis           Acherontisuchus guajiraensis       Atlantosuchus coupatezi       Rhabdognathus aslerensis       Congosaurus bequaerti     Rhabdognathus keiniensis

References

Template:Neosuchia Wikidata ☰ Q7706131 entry