Shuvosauridae 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 ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

of theropod-like

pseudosuchia Pseudosuchia is one of two major divisions of Archosauria, including living crocodilians and all archosaurs more closely related to crocodilians than to birds. Pseudosuchians are also informally known as "crocodilian-line archosaurs". Prior to ...

ns within the clade

Poposauroidea Poposauroidea is a clade of advanced pseudosuchians (archosaurs closer to crocodilians than to dinosaurs). It includes poposaurids, shuvosaurids, ctenosauriscids, and other unusual pseudosuchians such as ''Qianosuchus'' and ''Lotosaurus''. Howeve ...

. Shuvosaurids existed in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

(

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

) and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

(

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

) during the Late

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

period (late

Carnian The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage of the Upper Triassic Series (or earliest age of the Late Triassic Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227 million years ago (Ma). The Carnian is preceded by the Ladinian and is followed by t ...

Rhaetian The Rhaetian is the latest age of the Triassic Period (in geochronology) or the uppermost stage of the Triassic System (in chronostratigraphy). It was preceded by the Norian and succeeded by the Hettangian (the lowermost stage or earliest age ...

stages). Shuvosauridae was named by

Sankar Chatterjee Sankar Chatterjee (born May 28, 1943) is a paleontologist, and is the Paul W. Horn Professor of Geosciences at Texas Tech University and Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of ...

in 1993 to include the genus ''

Shuvosaurus ''Shuvosaurus'' (meaning "Shuvo's lizard") is a genus of beaked reptile from the Late Triassic of western Texas. Despite looking superficially similar to a theropod dinosaur, it is actually more closely related to crocodilians. Discovery and cl ...

''. In a 2007 study ''Chatterjeea'' was demonstrated to be a

junior synonym 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, Linna ...

of ''

'', and the therein cladistic analysis found that ''

'', ''

Effigia ''Effigia'' was an extinct genus of shuvosaurid known from the Late Triassic of New Mexico, south-western USA. With a bipedal stance, long neck, and a toothless beaked skull, ''Effigia'' and other shuvosaurids bore a resemblance to the ornithomim ...

'' and ''

Sillosuchus ''Sillosuchus'' is a genus of shuvosaurid poposauroid archosaur that lived in South America during the Late Triassic period. Shuvosaurids were an unusual family of reptiles belonging to the group Poposauroidea; although their closest modern relati ...

'' all form a closely related group. However, this group was left nameless, and simply referred to as Group Y. However, in accordance with

ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the I ...

rules of naming priority Shuvosauridae has priority over Chatterjeeidae (Shuvosauridae being named in 1993, while Chatterjeeidae was named in 1995). In 2011,

Sterling J. Nesbitt Sterling Nesbitt (born March 25, 1982, in Mesa, Arizona) is an American paleontologist best known for his work on the origin and early evolutionary patterns of archosaurs. He is currently an associate professor at Virginia Tech in the Department of ...

proposed a new definition to this clade: "The least inclusive clade containing ''

inexpectatus'' Chatterjee, 1993, and ''

longicervix'' Alcober and Parrish, 1997".

References

Poposauroids Triassic archosaurs Triassic reptiles of North America Triassic reptiles of South America Carnian first appearances Rhaetian extinctions Prehistoric reptile families {{triassic-reptile-stub