Sphenosuchia

Sphenosuchia
	Junggarsuchus sloani
Temporal occurrence
	Upper Triassic to Upper Jura
	228 to 150 million years
Locations
	North America, England, South Africa, China;
Systematics
	Diapsida
	Archosauromorpha
	Archosauria
	Crurotarsi
	Crocodylomorpha
	Sphenosuchia
Scientific name
	Sphenosuchia
	von Huene , 1942

The Sphenosuchia are a taxon of the reptiles from the Upper Triassic and the Upper Jurassic , and are early members of the Crocodylomorpha , a taxon that unites the relatives of the crocodiles with the latter. The Sphenosuchia were small and medium-sized, lightly built terrestrial animals. The group may not be monophyletic .

features

They are mainly characterized by the lack of the derived characteristics of the crocodiles. The pneumatization of the posterior cranial region has not yet been developed so strongly. The skull was low and with its elongated snout had a distinctly crocodile-like shape. A secondary palate was not yet present or only in rudimentary form. The legs were very long compared to those of the crocodiles, the front and rear legs were almost the same length. They were toe-walkers , their carpal bones elongated. Your acetabulum (acetabulum) was similar to perforate the dinosaurs. The square leg was not in contact with the side of the skull. The scale leg was arched and forked at the back.

Genera

Terrestrisuchus (Upper Triassic of England)
Dibothrosuchus (Lower Jurassic of China)
Kayentasuchus (Lower Jurassic of North America)
Litargosuchus (Lower Jurassic of South Africa)
Pedeticosaurus (Lower Jurassic of South Africa)
Platyognathus (Lower Jurassic of China)
Sphenosuchus (Lower Jurassic of South Africa)
Macelognathus (Upper Jurassic of North America)
Junggarsuchus (Middle Jurassic of China)

literature

Michael J. Benton : Paleontology of the vertebrates. Translation of the 3rd English edition by Hans-Ulrich Pfretzschner. Pfeil, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89937-072-0 .
Robert L. Carroll : Paleontology and Evolution of the Vertebrates. Thieme, Stuttgart et al. 1993, ISBN 3-13774-401-6 .

Web links

Commons : Sphenosuchia - collection of images, videos and audio files

Palæos Sphenosuchia

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c James M. Clark , Hans-Dieter Sues : Two new basal crocodylomorph archosaurs from the Lower Jurassic and the monophyly of the Sphenosuchia. In: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Vol. 136, No. 1, 2002, pp. 77-95, doi : 10.1046 / j.1096-3642.2002.00026.x .
↑ Ursula B. Göhlich , Luis M. Chiappe , James M. Clark, Hans-Dieter Sues: The systematic position of the Late Jurassic alleged dinosaur Macelognathus (Crocodylomorpha: Sphenosuchia). In: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. Vol. 42, No. 3, 2005, pp. 307–321, doi : 10.1139 / e05-005 , digital version (PDF; 1.51 MB) .

↑ James M. Clark, Xing Xu , Catherine A. Forster, Yuan Wang: A Middle Jurassic 'sphenosuchian' from China and the origin of the crocodylian skull. In: Nature . Vol. 430, No. 7003, 2004, pp. 1021-1024, doi : 10.1038 / nature02802 .

[Clark_&_Sues-1] James M. Clark , Hans-Dieter Sues : Two new basal crocodylomorph archosaurs from the Lower Jurassic and the monophyly of the Sphenosuchia. In: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Vol. 136, No. 1, 2002, pp. 77-95, doi : 10.1046 / j.1096-3642.2002.00026.x .

[2] Ursula B. Göhlich , Luis M. Chiappe , James M. Clark, Hans-Dieter Sues: The systematic position of the Late Jurassic alleged dinosaur Macelognathus (Crocodylomorpha: Sphenosuchia). In: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. Vol. 42, No. 3, 2005, pp. 307–321, doi : 10.1139 / e05-005 , digital version (PDF; 1.51 MB) .

[3] James M. Clark, Xing Xu , Catherine A. Forster, Yuan Wang: A Middle Jurassic 'sphenosuchian' from China and the origin of the crocodylian skull. In: Nature . Vol. 430, No. 7003, 2004, pp. 1021-1024, doi : 10.1038 / nature02802 .