''Tatrasuchus'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

temnospondyl Temnospondyli (from Greek language, Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') is a diverse order (biology), order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered Labyrinthodontia, primitive amphi ...

amphibian from the

Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided in chronostratigraphy. The Middle Triassic spans the time between Ma and ...

of Poland. It is classified as a member of the family Cyclotosauridae or

Mastodonsauridae Mastodonsauridae is a family of capitosauroid temnospondyls. Fossils belonging to this family have been found in North America, Greenland, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The family Capitosauridae is synonymous with Mastodonsauridae. Description S ...

. It is closely related to the genus ''

Cyclotosaurus ''Cyclotosaurus'' is an extinct genus of temnospondyl within the family Mastodonsauridae. It was of great size for an amphibian, had an elongated skull up to . Etymology The name means "round eared lizard" in Ancient Greek, derived from round ...

''. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

, ''Tatrasuchus kulczyckii'', was named in 1996. Damiani (2001) considered genus '' Kupferzellia'' Schoch (1997) from Middle Triassic of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to be a junior synonym of ''Tatrasuchus'', and recombined its type species, ''K. wildi'' as the second species of ''Tatrasuchus''. This classification was followed by some authors, e.g. Fortuny ''et al.'' (2011); other authors, e.g. Schoch (2008), maintain ''Tatrasuchus'' and ''Kupferzellia'' as distinct genera.

Phylogeny

Below is a

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 d ...

from Fortuny ''et al.'' (2011):

References

Triassic temnospondyls of Europe Prehistoric amphibian genera {{temnospondyli-stub