Mesoeucrocodylia

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iMesoeucrocodylia Fossil range: Early Jurassic - Recent
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Crocodylomorpha (unranked) Mesoeucrocodylia Whetstone and Whybrow, 1983

Mesoeucrocodylia is the name of the clade that has replaced the paraphyletic suborder Mesosuchia in phylogenetic taxonomy.

It was long known that Mesosuchia was a grade (Whetstone and Whybrow, 1983) a hypothesis confirmed by the phylogenetic analysis of Benton and Clark, 1988 which demonstrated that Eusuchia (which includes all living crocodilian species) was nested within Mesosuchia. As only monophyletic groups are considered valid, Mesoeucrocodylia was erected to replace Mesosuchia.

See Mesosuchia for the non-eusuchian constituents of Mesoeucrocodylia.

[edit] References

• Whetstone, K.N. & P.J. Whybrow. (1983). A “cursorial” crocodilian from the Triassic of Lesotho (Basutoland), southern Africa. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural History. The University of Kansas 106: 1–37