Itasuchidae is a

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

n family of

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 ...

ns that lived during the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

. It was a

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, ...

of terrestrial crocodyliforms that evolved a rather dog-like form, and were terrestrial carnivores.

Phylogeny

The phylogenetic analysis of Carvalho ''et al.'' (2004) found a sister relationship between ''

Malawisuchus ''Malawisuchus'' (meaning "Malawi crocodile") is an extinct genus of notosuchian mesoeucrocodylian from the Early Cretaceous Dinosaur Beds of Malawi. It was described in 1997 by Elizabeth Gomani as a member of the family Notosuchidae. The type ...

'' and ''Itasuchus''. They named this node family Itasuchidae, and found it to be a member of Peirosauroidea. However, their analysis didn't include any

neosuchia Neosuchia is a clade within Mesoeucrocodylia that includes all modern extant crocodilians and their closest fossil relatives. It is defined as the most inclusive clade containing all crocodylomorphs more closely related to ''Crocodylus niloticus' ...

ns or (other than ''Itasuchus'') trematochampsids. Later studies placed ''Itasuchus'' as a trematochampsid (and not closely related to the more derived notosuchian ''Malawisuchus''). In their 2018 paper renaming ''"Goniopholis" paulistanus'' as ''Roxochampsa'', Pinheiro et al. (2018) redefined Itasuchidae so that only ziphosuchians more closely related to ''Itasuchus'' than '' Barreirosuchus,

Montealtosuchus ''Montealtosuchus'' was an extinct genus of terrestrial crocodyliform.C. F. C. Geroto and R. J. Bertini. (2019). New material of ''Pepesuchus'' (Crocodyliformes; Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Bauru Group: implications about its phylogeny and the age ...

Mahajangasuchus ''Mahajangasuchus'' is an extinct genus of crocodyliform which had blunt, conical teeth. The type species, ''M. insignis'', lived during the Late Cretaceous; its fossils have been found in the Maevarano Formation in northern Madagascar. It was a ...

,'' and ''

Sebecus ''Sebecus'' (meaning " Sebek" in Latin) is an extinct genus of sebecid crocodylomorph from Eocene of South America. Like other sebecosuchians, it was entirely terrestrial and carnivorous. The genus is currently represented by two species, the ty ...

'' were included in the family.

References

Early Cretaceous crocodylomorphs Terrestrial crocodylomorphs Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs Early Cretaceous first appearances Maastrichtian extinctions Prehistoric reptile families {{paleo-archosaur-stub