Allodaposuchidae is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

eusuchia Eusuchia is a clade of crocodylomorphs that first appeared in the Early Cretaceous with '' Hylaeochampsa''. Along with Dyrosauridae and Sebecosuchia, they were the only crocodyliformes who survived the K-T extinction. Since the other two clades ...

ns that lived in Europe during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

(

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya (million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 mya. The ...

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...

Systematics

The

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...

, ''

Allodaposuchus ''Allodaposuchus'' is an extinct genus of crocodyliforms that lived in what is now southern Europe during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. Although generally classified as a non-crocodylian eusuchian crocodylomorph, ...

'', was originally described in 1928 by Nopcsa from the

-age Sard Formation of the

Hațeg Basin Hațeg (; german: Wallenthal; hu, Hátszeg) is a town in Hunedoara County, Romania with a population of 9,340. Three villages are administered by the town: Nălațvad (''Nalácvád''), Silvașu de Jos (''Alsószilvás''), and Silvașu de Sus ( ...

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, and classified as a relative of the North American ''

Leidyosuchus ''Leidyosuchus'' (meaning " Leidy's crocodile") 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 fro ...

''. It was later classified as a

n outside of

Crocodylia Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage) and are the closest living ...

in a 2001 paper, and subsequent studies found a number of European eusuchian species ('' Arenysuchus'', '' Ischyrochampsa'', '' Massaliasuchus'', ''

Musturzabalsuchus ''Musturzabalsuchus'' is an extinct monospecific genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodyliform. The type and only species is ''Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti''. Etymology The generic name means "broadened rostrum crocodile", with "Musturzaba ...

'') to group with ''Allodaposuchus'', prompting the erection of the clade Allodaposuchidae to accommodate ''Allodaposuchus'' and all European eusuchians closely related to it. Narváez ''et al.''

cladistic Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...

ally defined Allodaposuchidae in 2015 as '' Allodaposuchus precedens'' and all crocodyliforms more closely related to it than to ''

Hylaeochampsa vectiana ''Hylaeochampsa'' is an extinct genus of eusuchian crocodylomorphs. It is known only from a partial skull recovered from Barremian-age rocks of the Lower Cretaceous Vectis Formation ( Wealden Group) of the Isle of Wight. This skull, BMNH R 177, ...

'', '' Shamosuchus djadochtaensis'', '' Borealosuchus sternbergii'', '' Planocrania datangensis'', ''

Alligator mississippiensis The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the gen ...

'', ''

Crocodylus niloticus ''Crocodylus'' is a genus of true crocodiles in the family Crocodylidae. Taxonomy The generic name, ''Crocodylus'', was proposed by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in 1768. ''Crocodylus'' contains 13–14 extant (living) species and 5 extinct species ...

'', or ''

Gavialis gangeticus The gharial (''Gavialis gangeticus''), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are long, and males . Adult males have a distinct b ...

''. The exact placement of Allodaposuchidae is still in dispute. Narváez ''et al.'' considered it the

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

Hylaeochampsidae Hylaeochampsidae is an extinct family (biology), family of basal (phylogenetics), basal eusuchian Crocodylomorpha, crocodylomorphs thought to be closely related to the order Crocodylia. Classification Hylaeochampsidae was first constructed by Ch ...

, which together form a

that is sister to

. Other studies have alternatively recovered them not as sister taxon, but rather as an

evolutionary grade A grade is a taxon united by a level of morphological or physiological complexity. The term was coined by British biologist Julian Huxley, to contrast with clade, a strictly phylogenetic unit. Definition An evolutionary grade is a group of ...

towards Crocodylia, with Hylaeochampsidae more basal than Allodaposuchidae. Alternatively, a 2021 analysis incorporating

postcranial Postcrania (postcranium, adjective: postcranial) in zoology and vertebrate paleontology is all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g. of dinosaurs or other extinct tetrapods, consist of partial or isolated sk ...

information recovered Allodaposuchidae within Crocodylia. Cladogram 1: Narváez ''et al.'', 2015 Cladogram 2: Rio & Mannion, 2021 Cladogram 3: Blanco, 2021 The internal

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

of Allodaposuchidae can be shown in the

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

below from the 2021 Blanco study: In the 2021 study, Blanco recovered ''

'' as

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

, with ''

Agaresuchus ''Agaresuchus'' is an extinct genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodylomorph from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) of Spain. It includes two species, the type species ''Agaresuchus fontisensis'', and ''Agaresuchus subjuniperus'', ...

'' and ''

Lohuecosuchus ''Lohuecosuchus'' (meaning "Lo Hueco crocodile") is an extinct genus of allodaposuchid eusuchian crocodylomorph that lived during the Late Cretaceous (late Campanian to early Maastrichtian) in what is now Spain and southern France. Descriptio ...

''. Accordingly, Blanco proposed that ''Agaresuchus'' and ''Lohuecosuchus'' should be considered

junior synonyms The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linn ...

of ''Allodaposuchus''.

References

Neosuchians Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs of Europe Prehistoric reptiles of Europe Terrestrial crocodylomorphs Prehistoric reptile families {{paleo-archosaur-stub