Metasuchia is a major
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, ...
within the
superorder
Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms a ...
Crocodylomorpha
Crocodylomorpha is a group of pseudosuchian archosaurs that includes the crocodilians and their extinct relatives. They were the only members of Pseudosuchia to survive the end-Triassic extinction.
During Mesozoic and early Cenozoic times, c ...
. It is split into two main groups,
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 Sebeco ...
and
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 ...
.
Notosuchia is an extinct group that contains primarily small-bodied
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 ...
taxa with
heterodont
In anatomy, a heterodont (from Greek, meaning 'different teeth') is an animal which possesses more than a single tooth morphology.
In vertebrates, heterodont pertains to animals where teeth are differentiated into different forms. For example, ...
dentition. Neosuchia includes the extant
crocodylians and
basal taxa, such as
peirosaurids and
pholidosaurids. It is
phylogenetically defined by Sereno ''et al.'' (2001) as a clade containing ''
Notosuchus terrestris'', ''
Crocodylus niloticus'', and all descendants of their common ancestor.
Phylogenetics
The phylogeny of basal metasuchians has experienced many revisions in recent years.
[ The phylogeny of notosuchians has been particularly revised, with the construction of Sebecia by Larsson and Sues (2007) to include peirosaurids in the clade.]Sebecidae
Sebecidae is an extinct family of prehistoric terrestrial sebecosuchian crocodylomorphs. The oldest known member of the group is '' Ogresuchus furatus'' known from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Tremp Formation ( Spain). Sebecids were d ...
) was polyphyletic
A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...
, as '' Baurusuchus'' was placed outside Sebecia, which itself was placed outside Notosuchia. However, more recent phylogenetic studies have placed '' Baurusuchus'' within Notosuchia once again, although it is still not considered to be a sebecosuchian.[
In 2012, a phylogenetic study was done to produce supertrees of Crocodyliformes, including 184 species.]
References
External links
Metasuchia
in the Paleobiology Database
The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms.
History
The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3307307
Jurassic crocodylomorphs
Cretaceous crocodylomorphs
Paleogene crocodylomorphs
Neogene crocodylomorphs
Extant Early Jurassic first appearances