Mahajangasuchidae is an extinct
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of
notosuchia
Notosuchia is a suborder of primarily Gondwanan mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Some phylogenies recover Sebecosuchia as a clade within Notosuchia, others as a sister group (see below); if Sebecosu ...
n
crocodyliform
Crocodyliformes is a clade of crurotarsan archosaurs, the group often traditionally referred to as "crocodilians". They are the first members of Crocodylomorpha to possess many of the features that define later relatives. They are the only pseudo ...
s. It currently contains two genera, ''
Mahajangasuchus'' and ''
Kaprosuchus'', both of which lived 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'', ...
in
Gondwana. It is defined as the most inclusive clade containing ''Mahajangasuchus insignis'' but not ''
Notosuchus terrestris
''Notosuchus'' (; 'southern crocodile') is an extinct genus of South American notosuchian crocodylomorph. It was terrestrial, living approximately 85 million years ago in the Santonian stage of the Late Cretaceous.
Description
''Notosuchus'' wa ...
'', ''
Simosuchus clarki'', ''
Araripesuchus gomesii'', ''
Baurusuchus pachecoi
''Baurusuchus'' is an extinct member of the ancestral crocodilian lineage, which lived in Brazil from 90 to 83.5 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous period. Technically, it is a genus of baurusuchid mesoeucrocodylian. It was a terrest ...
'', ''
Peirosaurus torminni'', ''
Goniopholis crassidens'',
''
Pholidosaurus schaumbergensis'', or ''
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 spe ...
''.
Phylogenetically, Mahajangasuchidae is placed just outside
pholidosaurids and more derived
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 niloticu ...
ns.
[
Defining characters of the family include fused ]nasals
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
, a jaw articulation below the posterior maxilla
The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. T ...
ry tooth row, a deep mandibular symphysis that is oriented anterodorsally, and the formation of a hornlike posterodorsal process from the squamosal The squamosal is a skull bone found in most reptiles, amphibians, and birds. In fishes, it is also called the pterotic bone.
In most tetrapods, the squamosal and quadratojugal bones form the cheek series of the skull. The bone forms an ancestral co ...
and parietal (which is much more pronounced in ''Kaprosuchus'').
Phylogeny
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 ...
showing the phylogenetic relationship of Mahajangasuchidae within Neosuchia after Sereno and Larsson, 2009:[
In 2014, Mahajangasuchidae were grouped within ]Notosuchia
Notosuchia is a suborder of primarily Gondwanan mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Some phylogenies recover Sebecosuchia as a clade within Notosuchia, others as a sister group (see below); if Sebecosu ...
:[
The cladogram following by Nicholl et al. 2021:][
]
See also
* Sebecosuchia
Sebecosuchia is an extinct group of mesoeucrocodylian crocodyliforms that includes the families Sebecidae and Baurusuchidae. The group was long thought to have first appeared in the Late Cretaceous with the baurusuchids and become extinct in th ...
- another group of terrestrial crocodylomorphs.
References
Terrestrial crocodylomorphs
Late Cretaceous crocodylomorphs
Prehistoric reptiles of Africa
Notosuchians
Cenomanian first appearances
Maastrichtian extinctions
Prehistoric reptile families
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