Crocodylus falconensis

' Temporal range: Early Pliocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Crocodylomorpha
Order:	Crocodilia
Family:	Crocodylidae
Subfamily:	Crocodylinae
Genus:	Crocodylus
Species:	C. falconensis
Binomial name
Crocodylus falconensis Scheyer et al., 2013

Crocodylus falconensis is an extinct species of crocodile known from the early Pliocene of the lower part of the Vergel Member of the San Gregorio Formation of Venezuela. C. falconensis was named in 2013 and it is thought to be the basalmost known Neotropical crocodile species. The cladogram below follows the topology from Scheyer et al. (2013).^[1]

	Mecistops cataphractus  Crocodylus  C. palaeindicus  Indopacific  C. palustris C. siamensis C. porosus C. mindorensis C. johnsoni C. novaeguineae  Africa-New World  C. niloticus  New World  C. falconensis C. moreletii C. rhombifer C. acutus C. intermedius

References

1. Scheyer, T. M.; Aguilera, O. A.; Delfino, M.; Fortier, D. C.; Carlini, A. A.; Sánchez, R.; Carrillo-Briceño, J. D.; Quiroz, L.; Sánchez-Villagra, M. R. (2013). "Crocodylian diversity peak and extinction in the late Cenozoic of the northern Neotropics". Nature Communications. 4: 1907. doi:10.1038/ncomms2940. PMID 23695701.