Rauisuchidae

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Rauisuchidae
Temporal range: Middle - Late Triassic
Postosuchus kirkpatricki
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Sauropsida
Subclass:
Diapsida
Infraclass:
Archosauromorpha
(unranked):
Crurotarsi
Order:
Rauisuchia
Family:
Rauisuchidae

Rauisuchidae are a group of large (up to 6 meters or more) predatory Triassic archosaurs, and constitute advanced representatives of the larger group Rauisuchia. There is some disagreement over which genera should be included in the Prestosuchidae, which in Rauisuchidae, and which in the Poposauridae, and indeed whether these should even be thought of as separate families.

An early cladistic analysis of crocodylotarsan archosaurs included Lotosaurus, Fasolasuchus, Rauisuchus, and "the Kupferzell rauisuchid" (later called Batrachotomus) within Rauisuchidae.[1] However, a later study found that Batrachotomus was more closely related to Prestosuchus, and thus was a prestosuchid.[2] In addition, the toothless Lotosaurus has been found to be more closely related to the Ctenosauriscidae, a clade of Dimetrodon-like animals with a sail on their back.[3]

Two genera previously classified as poposaurids, are in fact rauisuchids. These include Teratosaurus[4][5] and Postosuchus. [6]

List

Genus Status Age Location Description Images
Valid. Late Triassic. Named for the Moroccan fossil site where it was discovered, the Argana Basin.
Valid.
Valid.
Valid.
Valid.
Valid. — preoccupied by the ankylosaurian dinosaur Hoplitosaurus
Valid.
Valid. Middle Triassic.
Valid. Late Triassic. North America.
Valid.
Valid.
Valid.
Valid. Late Triassic. Europe.
Valid.
Valid.

References

  1. ^ Parrish JM. 1993. Phylogeny of the Crocodylotarsi, with reference to archosaurian and crurotarsan monophyly. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 13: 287-308.
  2. ^ Gower DJ. 2002. Braincase evolution in suchian archosaurs: evidence from the rauisuchian Batrachotomus. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136: 49-76.
  3. ^ Nesbitt SJ. 2005. Osteology of the Middle Triassic pseudosuchian archosaur Arizonasaurus babbitti. Historical Biology 17: 19-47.
  4. ^ Long RA, Murry PA. 1995. Late Triassic (Carnian and Norian) tetrapods from the Southwestern United States. New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science Bulletin 4: 1-254.
  5. ^ Galton PM, Walker AD. 1996. Bromsgroveia from the Middle Triassic of England, the earliest record of a poposaurid thecodontian reptile (Archosauria: Rauisuchia). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 201 (3): 303-325.
  6. ^ Weinbaum JC, Hungerbühler A. 2007. A revision of Poposaurus gracilis (Archosauria: Suchia) based on two new specimens from the Late Triassic of the southwestern U.S.A. Palaeontologische Zeitschrift 81(2):131-145.

External links

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