Restoration of the skull of Quinkana timara at the Central Australian Museum
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Reptilia
Clade:
Archosauromorpha
Clade:
Archosauriformes
Order:
Crocodilia
Clade:
†Mekosuchinae Willis, Molnar & Scanlon, 1993
Type species
†Mekosuchus inexpectatus
Balouet & Buffetaut, 1987
Genera
Australosuchus
Baru
Harpacochampsa?
Kalthifrons
Kambara
Mekosuchus
Paludirex
Quinkana
Trilophosuchus
Ultrastenos
Volia
Mekosuchinae is an extinct clade of crocodilians from the Cenozoic of Australasia. They represented the dominant group of crocodilians in the region during most of the Cenozoic.[1] They first appear in the fossil record in the Eocene in Australia, and survived until the arrival of humans: in the Late Pleistocene in Australia and within the Holocene in the Pacific islands of Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
Mekosuchine crocodiles are a diverse group. One of the last species, Mekosuchus inexpectatus from Holocene New Caledonia, may have been arboreal.[2] The early Miocene species Harpacochampsa camfieldensis may have resembled a false gharial. Another mekosuchine fossil, currently undescribed, has been found in Miocene deposits from New Zealand. One genus, Mekosuchus, managed to spread to the islands of the Pacific; it is believed to have island-hopped across the Coral Sea, moving first to a now submerged island known as Greater Chesterfield Island, then New Caledonia and onwards. In the Pleistocene, Quinkana was one of the top terrestrial predators of the Australian continent.
Mekosuchines underwent a drastic decline in post-Miocene Australia, with all genera, except for Quinkana and Paludirex (both perishing during the Quaternary extinction event) becoming extinct in Australia by the end of the Pliocene. After the demise of Quinkana and Pallimnarchus, the group survived on Vanuatu and New Caledonia until the arrival of humans, who are presumed to have driven them to extinction.
While historically considered to be true crocodiles (of the family Crocodylidae), modern research places them as an independent group within or closely related to Longirostres, which contains both crocodiles and gavialids.[1]
^ abRistevski, Jorgo; Weisbecker, Vera; Scanlon, John D.; Price, Gilbert J.; Salisbury, Steven W. (February 2023). "Cranial anatomy of the mekosuchine crocodylian Trilophosuchus rackhami Willis, 1993". The Anatomical Record. 306 (2): 239–297. doi:10.1002/ar.25050. ISSN 1932-8486. PMC 10086963. PMID 36054424.
^Naish, Darren (13 May 2009). "The small, recently extinct, island-dwelling crocodilians of the south Pacific". Tetrapod Zoology. ScienceBlogs. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
Mekosuchinae is an extinct clade of crocodilians from the Cenozoic of Australasia. They represented the dominant group of crocodilians in the region during...
addressing the existence of Mekosuchinae in a note added later on. Willis doubled down on the assignment of Quinkana to the Mekosuchinae with a 1995 publication...
includes the crocodiles. Crocodyloidea may also include the extinct Mekosuchinae, native to Australasia from the Eocene to the Holocene, although this...
traditional composition of Mekosuchinae, with Kambara and Australosuchus being recovered elsewhere in Crocodylia and Mekosuchinae also including the clade...
Since then, different analyses have recovered the species as a member of Mekosuchinae, or as basal to a clade including mekosuchines and Crocodylidae. Two...
the gradual recognition of what would eventually become known as the Mekosuchinae. Although its placement in early studies varied depending on the author...
extinct monospecific genus of crocodylian belonging to the subfamily Mekosuchinae. The type and only known species Australosuchus clarkae lived during...
This is a list of Oceanian species extinct in the Holocene that covers extinctions from the Holocene epoch, a geologic epoch that began about 11,650 years...
Harpacochampsa from the Middle Miocene, however, while initially placed within Mekosuchinae studies since then have increasingly come to favour the interpretation...
more closely related to modern crocodiles than members of the family Mekosuchinae, which was found in Australia during most of the Cenozoic. Two of the...
symphysis differentiates Astorgosuchus from members of Crocodylinae and Mekosuchinae, while the shortened morphology of the rostrum sets it apart from tomistomines...
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