Thalattosuchia

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Thalattosuchia Fossil range: Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Subclass: Diapsida Infraclass: Archosauromorpha Superorder: Crocodylomorpha Suborder: Thalattosuchia Fraas, 1901

Thalattosuchia is the name given to a clade of marine crocodylomorphs from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous that had a cosmopolitan distribution.

Thalattosuchia was named by Fraas in 1901 in order to form a stable name for the Metriorhynchidae. Various authors have considered this to be either an infraorder or a suborder within Mesosuchia. However the term Mesosuchia is no longer considered valid as it is a paraphyletic group.

Since Buffetaut, 1982 demonstrated the shared characteristics of the early forms of Metriorhynchidae and Teleosauridae, Thalattosuchia has consisted of these two families.

Some of the early members of Teleosauridae have been discovered in non-marine deposits suggesting thalattosuchians 'moved' from being semi-aquatic freshwater forms to fully-marine forms.

[edit] References

• Buffetaut, E. (1982). Radiation évolutive, paléoécologie et biogéographie des Crocodiliens mésosuchienes. Mémoires Societé Geologique de France 142: 1–88

• Fraas, E. (1902). Die Meer-Krocodilier (Thalattosuchia) des oberen Jura unter specieller Berücksichtigung von Dacosaurus und Geosaurus. Paleontographica 49: 1-72