Teleosauridae

Teleosauridae
Temporal range: 183–130 Ma

Toarcian - Hauterivian[1]

Pelagosaurus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Subclass: Diapsida
Infraclass: Archosauromorpha
(unranked): Mesoeucrocodylia
Suborder: Thalattosuchia
Family: Teleosauridae
Synonyms
  • Mystriosauri Fitzinger, 1843
  • Mystriosauridae Fitzinger, 1843[2]
  • Steneosauridae Owen, 1843

The teleosaurids were marine crocodyliforms similar to the modern gharial that lived from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. They had long snouts, indicative of piscivory (fish eating) and were the closest relatives to the Metriorhynchidae, the Mesozoic crocodilians that returned to the sea and evolved paddle-like forelimbs and a shark-like tail.

Geographical distribution

The family has a wide geographic distribution, with material found in Africa (Ethiopia, Madagascar and Morocco), Europe (England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia and Switzerland), North America (Oregon), South America (Argentina), India and possibly China.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Genera

Genus Age Location Description Synonyms

Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous.

Early Jurassic

May not be a teleosaurid.

Early Jurassic

Recovered as a basal member of Metriorhynchoidea in recent studies.[9]

Early Jurassic

Early Jurassic–Middle Jurassic
  • ?Mycterosuchus
  • ?Mystriosaurus

Middle Jurassic

The dagger † indicates extinct genera.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Federico Fanti, Tetsuto Miyashita, Luigi Cantelli, Fawsi Mnasri, Jihed Dridi, Michela Contessi and Andrea Cau (2016). "The largest thalattosuchian (Crocodylomorpha) supports teleosaurid survival across the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary". Cretaceous Research. in press. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2015.11.011.
  2. ↑ Fitzinger LJFJ. 1843. Systema Reptilium. Wien: Braumüller et Seidel, 106 pp.
  3. ↑ Steel R. 1973. Crocodylia. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie, Teil 16. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag,116 pp.
  4. ↑ Bardet N, Hua S. 1996. Simolestes nowackianus HUENE, 1938 from the Late Jurassic of Ethiopia is a teleosaurid crocodile, not a pliosaur. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatschefte 1996: 65-71.
  5. ↑ Buffetaut E. 1979. Jurassic marine crocodilians (Mesosuchia, Teleosauridae) from central Oregon; first record in North America. Journal of Paleontology 53 (1):10-215.
  6. ↑ Owen R. 1852. Note on the crocodilians remains accompanying Dr. T.L. Bell's paper on Kotah. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 8: 233.
  7. ↑ Delfino M, Dal Sasso C. 2006. Marine reptiles (Thalattosuchia) from the Early Jurassic of Lombardy (northern Italy). Geobios 39 (3): 346-354.
  8. ↑ Storrs GW, Efimov MB. 2000. Mesozoic crocodyliformes of north-central Eurasia. In: Benton M, Shishkin MA, Unwin DM, Kurichkin EN (eds). The Age of Dinosauria in Russia and Mongolia. P. 402-419, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  9. ↑ Young, M. T.; Brusatte, S. L.; De Andrade, M. B.; Desojo, J. B.; Beatty, B. L.; Steel, L.; Fernández, M. S.; Sakamoto, M.; Ruiz-Omeñaca, J. I.; Schoch, R. R. (2012). "The Cranial Osteology and Feeding Ecology of the Metriorhynchid Crocodylomorph Genera Dakosaurus and Plesiosuchus from the Late Jurassic of Europe". In Butler, Richard J. PLoS ONE 7 (9): e44985. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044985. PMC 3445579. PMID 23028723. edit
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