Protosuchia
| Protosuchia | ||||||||||||
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Holotype of Protosuchus richardsoni from the Upper Triassic of Arizona in the American Museum of Natural History in New York (specimen no .: AMNH 3024). |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Triassic to Lower Cretaceous | ||||||||||||
| 228 to 99.6 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Protosuchia | ||||||||||||
| Mook , 1934 |
The Protosuchia were reptiles from the kinship of the crocodiles , which occurred worldwide from the Upper Triassic to the Lower Cretaceous . They are the most primitive, certain representatives of the crocodile lineage. They include all crocodyliformes , which are more closely related to Protosuchus richardsoni than to the Nile crocodile ( Crocodylus niloticus ).
Fossil remains of Protosuchia were often found together with dinosaurs in sediments of terrestrial origin. It is therefore believed that they had a less water-based way of life than today's crocodiles.
features
Your skull is characterized by reduced upper temporal and anterior orbital windows . The two parietal bones are fused together, as are post orbitals and post frontals . A large canine-like tooth in the lower jaw lies in a gap between the premaxillary and maxillary with its mouth closed . The TMJ is reptiles typically about quadrate having a large-area contact to the side of the cranium seated sphenoid connected directly has with the cranium. The sphenoid bone is larger than the basioccipital of the cranial skull base, the wing bone is hollow, the palatine bone is part of the well-developed secondary roof of the mouth .
The rest of the skeleton - with the exception of the amphicoel-shaped vertebrae (anterior and posterior contact surfaces of the vertebral bodies are indented) and the longer limbs - is similar to that of today's crocodiles.
Genera
- Dianosuchus
- Erythrochampsa ( Lower Jurassic , South Africa)
- Hemiprotosuchus
- Notochampsa (Lower Jurassic, South Africa)
- Orthosuchus (Lower Jurassic, South Africa)
- Protosuchus (Lower Jurassic, North America)
- Sichuanosuchus ( Lower Cretaceous , China)
- Stegomosuchus
literature
- Robert L. Carroll : Paleontology and Evolution of the Vertebrates. Thieme, Stuttgart et al. 1993, ISBN 3-13-774401-6 .
- ↑ Hartmut Haubold : Literature report. Archosauromorpha, Archosauriformes, Crurotarsi and Crocodylia until 2003. In: Zentralblatt für Geologie und Paläontologie. Part 2: Paleontology. Issue 1/2, 2004, ISSN 0044-4189 , pp. 1–27, digital version (PDF; 201 kB) .
Web links
- Palæos Protosuchia