Parasuchidae is a clade of phytosaurs more derived than Diandongosuchus, a basal phytosaur. It encompasses nearly all phytosaurs, including early Parasuchus-grade forms as well as a more restricted clade of more specialized phytosaurs. This more restricted clade is traditionally known as the family Phytosauridae and more recently as the subfamily Mystriosuchinae.

Parasuchidae
Temporal range: Carnian - Rhaetian,
Skull of Machaeroprosopus mccauleyi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Clade: Archosauriformes
Clade: Crurotarsi
Order: Phytosauria
Family: Parasuchidae
Lydekker, 1885
Subgroups

Parasuchids have been recovered from Late Triassic deposits in Europe, North America, India, Morocco, Thailand, Brazil, Greenland[1] and Madagascar. In their osteology of Parasuchus, Kammerer et al. (2016) suggested using Parasuchidae to include taxa traditionally included in Phytosauridae as well as Parasuchus-grade taxa.[2] Stocker et al. (2017) use the phytosaur classification advocated by Kammerer et al. (2016) by recovering Diandongosuchus as the basalmost phytosaur outside Parasuchidae, noting that Diandongosuchus has a shorter snout than parasuchids.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ Mateus, O., Clemmensen L., Klein N., Wings O., Frobøse N., Milàn J., Adolfssen J., & Estrup E. (2014). The Late Triassic of Jameson Land revisited: new vertebrate findings and the first phytosaur from Greenland. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Program and Abstracts, 2014, 182.
  2. ^ Kammerer, C. F., Butler, R. J., Bandyopadhyay, S., Stocker, M. R. (2016), Relationships of the Indian phytosaur Parasuchus hislopi Lydekker, 1885. Papers in Palaeontology, 2: 1–23. doi: 10.1002/spp2.1022
  3. ^ Michelle R. Stocker; Li-Jun Zhao; Sterling J. Nesbitt; Xiao-Chun Wu; Chun Li (2017). "A Short-Snouted, Middle Triassic Phytosaur and its Implications for the Morphological Evolution and Biogeography of Phytosauria". Scientific Reports. 7: Article number 46028. doi:10.1038/srep46028.