''Gavialis browni'' 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 ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of the crocodylian genus ''

Gavialis ''Gavialis'' is a genus of crocodylians that includes the living gharial ''Gavialis gangeticus'' and one known extinct species, '' Gavialis bengawanicus.'' ''G. gangeticus'' comes from the Indian Subcontinent, while ''G. bengawanicus'' is known ...

'' and a close relative of the living

gharial 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 ...

''Gavialis gangeticus''. ''G. browni'' lived about 5 million years ago in the Sivalik Hills of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. ''G. browni'' can be distinguished from ''G. gangeticus'' by its more closely spaced eyes and a narrower

frontal bone The frontal bone is a bone in the human skull. The bone consists of two portions.''Gray's Anatomy'' (1918) These are the vertically oriented squamous part, and the horizontally oriented orbital part, making up the bony part of the forehead, par ...

. The species was named in 1932 by paleontologist Charles Mook. Mook described it as a transitional form between the most primitive ''Gavialis'' species, '' Gavialis dixoni'', and the most advanced, the modern gharial (although ''G. dixoni'' is now placed outside ''Gavialis'' in its own genus, ''

Dollosuchus ''Dollosuchus'' (meaning "Louis Dollo's crocodile") is an extinct monospecific genus of tomistomine crocodilian originally named as a species of ''Gavialis''. It is a basal form possibly related to ''Kentisuchus'', according to several phylogene ...

'', and may be more closely related to crocodiles than to the gharial). ''G. browni'' has a longer snout with more teeth than ''Dollosuchus'', but it is not as long and does not have as many teeth as that of the gharial. ''G. browni'' has also been proposed to be moved to a genus other than ''Gavialis''. Below is a cladogram that shows the proposed

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 ...

within Gavialidae, including

members:

References

Gavialidae Miocene reptiles of Asia Fossil taxa described in 1932 {{paleo-archosaur-stub