Proterosuchidae

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iProterosuchidae Fossil range: Changhsingian to Olenekian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Subclass: Diapsida Infraclass: Archosauromorpha (unranked) Archosauriformes Family: Proterosuchidae von Huene, 1914
Genera
see Taxonomy

Proterosuchidae (or Chasmatosuchidae) are an early, most certainly paraphyletic, assemblage of basal archosaurs whose fossils are known from the Latest Permian of Russia and the Early Triassic of southern Africa, Russia, China, Australia, and Antarctica. They were slender, medium-sized (about 1.5 meters long), long-snouted and superficially crocodile-like animals, although they lack the armoured scutes of true crocodiles, and in their skeletal features are much more primitive. Their most characteristic feature is a distinct down-turning of the premaxilla (the front of the upper jaw, which overhangs the lower jaw). the limbs are short and indicate a sprawling posture, like contemporary lizards but unlike most later archosaurs.

The Proterosuchids represent perhaps the earliest adaptive radiation of the archosaurs. They gave rise to the Erythrosuchidae some time in the Early Triassic.

[edit] Taxonomy

• Infraclass Archosauromorpha
  • (unranked) Archosauriformes
    • Family Proterosuchidae
      • Archosaurus
      • Chasmatosaurus
      • Chasmatosuchus
      • Kalisuchus
      • Proterosuchus
      • Tasmaniosaurus

[edit] References

• Benton, M. J. (2000), Vertebrate Paleontology, 2nd Ed.; (2004) 3rd edition Blackwell Science Ltd
• Carroll, R. L. (1988), Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution, WH Freeman & Co.

[edit] External links

• Proterosuchidae - at EvoWiki
• Proterosuchidae - list of species (Mikko's Phylogeny Archive)