''Eremosuchus'' is an extinct
genus of
sebecosuchian
mesoeucrocodylia
Mesoeucrocodylia is the clade that includes Eusuchia and crocodyliforms formerly placed in the paraphyletic group Mesosuchia. The group appeared during the Early Jurassic, and continues to the present day.
Diagnosis
It was long known that M ...
n.
Fossils have been found from
El Kohol
EL, El or el may refer to:
Religion
* El (deity), a Semitic word for "God"
People
* EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer
* El DeBarge, music artist
* El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...
,
Algeria of
Eocene age. It had serrated, ziphodont teeth.
The genus was originally referred to the
family Trematochampsidae in 1989. A close relation to the
baurusuchids
Baurusuchidae is a Gondwanan family of mesoeucrocodylians that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It is a group of terrestrial hypercarnivorous crocodilians from South America (Argentina and Brazil) and possibly Pakistan. Baurusuchidae has been, i ...
was also considered. However, it was only tentatively assigned to this family on the basis of a few features of the cranial skeleton. Some features, such as a broad concave
symphysis and laterally compressed teeth, are not restricted to the trematochampsids and occur in some sebecosuchians such as ''
Baurusuchus'' and ''
Sebecus''. Other features such as the
surangular forming part of the craniomandibular articulation can also be found in many
basal
Basal or basilar is a term meaning ''base'', ''bottom'', or ''minimum''.
Science
* Basal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features associated with the base of an organism or structure
* Basal (medicine), a minimal level that is nec ...
mesoeucrocodylians. A later
phylogenetic analysis placed ''Eremosuchus'' within the
suborder
Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...
Sebecosuchia. It is now thought to be one of many putatively assigned sebecosuchians that cannot be firmly placed within any one family. It is thought to be the closest relative of the genus ''
Pehuenchesuchus
''Pehuenchesuchus'' (meaning "Pehuenche crocodile", after the Mapuche name for the region in which it was found) is an extinct genus of sebecosuchian mesoeucrocodylian. It was discovered in rocks of the late Turonian-Coniacian-age Upper Cretaceo ...
''.
References
Eocene crocodylomorphs
Paleogene reptiles of Africa
Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera
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