Temporal range: Early Triassic–Present, 248–0 Ma[1]
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Postosuchus (Rauisuchidae) and Desmatosuchus (Aetosauria)
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Reptilia
Clade:
Archosauria
Clade:
Pseudosuchia Zittel, 1887
Subgroups
†Dasygnathoides
†Phytosauria?
†Ornithosuchidae
Suchia
Synonyms
Crocodylotarsi Benton & Clark, 1988[2]
Pseudosuchia (from Greek: ψεύδος (pseudos), "false" and Greek: σούχος (souchos), "crocodile")[3] is one of two major divisions of Archosauria, including living crocodilians and all archosaurs more closely related to crocodilians than to birds. Pseudosuchians are also informally known as "crocodilian-line archosaurs". Despite Pseudosuchia meaning "false crocodiles", the name is a misnomer as true crocodilians are now defined as a subset of the group.
The clade Pseudosuchia is potentially equivalent to Crurotarsi even though the latter has a different, node-based definition: "all taxa the least inclusive clade containing Rutiodon carolinensis (Emmons, 1856), and Crocodylus niloticus (Laurenti, 1768)." However, a major 2011 study of Triassic archosaur relations proposed that Rutiodon's group, Phytosauria, was not closely related to other traditional "crurotarsans", at least compared to "bird-line archosaurs" (Avemetatarsalians) such as pterosaurs and dinosaurs. As a result, Crurotarsi could be a much broader clade than Pseudosuchia.[4] Other recent studies support a more traditional phylogeny.[5]
Contrary to popular belief, crocodilians differ significantly from their ancestors and distant relatives, as Pseudosuchia contains a staggering diversity of reptiles with many different lifestyles. Early pseudosuchians were successful in the Triassic period. They included giant, quadrupedal apex predators such as Saurosuchus, Prestosuchus, and Fasolasuchus. Ornithosuchids were large scavengers, while erpetosuchids and gracilisuchids were small, light-footed predators. A few groups acquired herbivorous diets, such as the heavily armored aetosaurs, and several were bipedal, such as Poposaurus and Postosuchus. The bizarre, ornithomimid-like shuvosaurids were both bipedal and herbivorous, with toothless beaks.[4]
Many of these Triassic pseudosuchian groups went extinct at or before the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. However, one group, the crocodylomorphs, survived the major extinction. Crocodylomorphs themselves evolved a diverse array of lifestyles during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, although only a single subset of crocodylomorphs, the Crocodilia, survive to the present day. Living crocodilians include crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and gavialids.
^Butler, Richard J.; Brusatte, Stephen L.; Reich, Mike; Nesbitt, Sterling J.; Schoch, Rainer R.; Hornung, Jahn J. (2011). "The sail-backed reptile Ctenosauriscus from the latest Early Triassic of Germany and the timing and biogeography of the early archosaur radiation". PLOS ONE. 6 (10): e25693. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...625693B. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0025693. PMC 3194824. PMID 22022431.
^Cite error: The named reference BC88 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Colbert, Edwin Harris; Knight, Charles Robert (1951). The Dinosaur Book: The ruling reptiles and their relatives. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. p. 153.
^ abCite error: The named reference NSJ11 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Ezcurra, Martín D.; Fiorelli, Lucas E.; Martinelli, Agustín G.; Rocher, Sebastián; von Baczko, M. Belén; Ezpeleta, Miguel; Taborda, Jeremías R.A.; Hechenleitner, E. Martín; Trotteyn, M. Jimena; Desojo, Julia B. (11 September 2017). "Deep faunistic turnovers preceded the rise of dinosaurs in southwestern Pangaea". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 1 (10): 1477–1483. Bibcode:2017NatEE...1.1477E. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0305-5. hdl:11336/41466. ISSN 2397-334X. PMID 29185518. S2CID 256707805.
Pseudosuchia (from Greek: ψεύδος (pseudos), "false" and Greek: σούχος (souchos), "crocodile") is one of two major divisions of Archosauria, including living...
of its descendants. The base of Archosauria splits into two clades: Pseudosuchia, which includes crocodilians and their extinct relatives; and Avemetatarsalia...
equivalent term for the crocodilian side of the archosaur family tree is Pseudosuchia. This traditional definition of Crurotarsi assumed that phytosaurs were...
survivors of the Archosauria. Members of the order's total group, the clade Pseudosuchia, appeared about 250 million years ago in the Early Triassic period, and...
phylogenetic relationships of Prestosuchus chiniquensis (Archosauria: Pseudosuchia) from the original collection of von Huene, Middle-Late Triassic of southern...
America during the Late Triassic. Postosuchus is a member of the clade Pseudosuchia, the lineage of archosaurs that includes modern crocodilians (the other...
new species of the Late Triassic aetosaur Desmatosuchus (Archosauria: Pseudosuchia)". Comptes Rendus Palevol. 4 (4): 327–340. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2005.03...
"Functional morphology of the Triassic apex predator Saurosuchus galilei (Pseudosuchia: Loricata) and convergence with a post‐Triassic theropod dinosaur". The...
with numerous specimens and remains. Rauisuchia 1959 in paleontology Pseudosuchia Crurotarsi Reig, O. A. (1959). "Primeros datos descriptivos sobre nuevos...
placed in a more derived position than Saurosuchus towards the crown of Pseudosuchia. von Huene, F. (1938). Die fossilen Reptilien des südamerikanischen Gondwanalandes...
named as an order united by the possession of a crurotarsal ankle, with Pseudosuchia and Crocodilia as independent suborders within it. However, newer studies...
and the term Pseudosuchia was simply a catch-all term for any species that didn't fit in one of the other three sub-orders. Pseudosuchia as used in recent...
many years, phytosaurs were considered to be the most basal group of Pseudosuchia (crocodile-line archosaurs), meaning that they were thought to be more...
crocodilians and their extinct relatives. They were the only members of Pseudosuchia to survive the end-Triassic extinction. Extinct crocodylomorphs were...
STOCKER, MICHELLE R. (2010-09-16). "A new taxon of phytosaur (Archosauria: Pseudosuchia) from the Late Triassic (Norian) Sonsela Member (Chinle Formation) in...
"Garzapelta muelleri gen. et sp. nov., a new aetosaur (Archosauria: Pseudosuchia) from the Late Triassic (middle Norian) middle Cooper Canyon Formation...
impressive skeleton of the giant top predator Prestosuchus chiniquensis (Pseudosuchia: Loricata) from the Triassic of Southern Brazil, with phylogenetic remarks"...
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