Proterosuchids
Temporal range: Latest Permian to Latest Early Triassic, Possible Middle Triassic records
Restored skull of Archosaurus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Clade: Archosauriformes
Family: Proterosuchidae
Huene, 1914
Genera
Synonyms
  • Proterosuchinae Huene, 1914
  • Chasmatosauridae Haughton, 1924
  • Chasmatosaurinae Haughton, 1924
  • Pelycosimiidae Abel, 1919

Proterosuchidae is an early family of basal archosauriforms whose fossils are known from the Late Permian and the Early Triassic. The highest diversity of genera is known from European Russia, but fossils are also known from South Africa, India, China, Australia, Brazil and possibly Argentina.[1] The name comes from Greek πρότερο- ("first") and σοῦχος ("crocodile").

Description

Proterosuchus fergusi from the Early Triassic of South Africa

They were slender, medium-sized (about 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) long, largest specimens reached 3.5–4 m (11–13 ft)[2]), long-snouted and superficially crocodile-like animals, although they lacked the armoured scutes of true crocodiles, and their skeletal features are much more primitive. The limbs are short and indicate a sprawling posture, like contemporary lizards but unlike most later archosaurs.

Their most characteristic feature is a distinct down-turning of the premaxilla (the front of the upper jaw, which overhangs the lower jaw).

Evolutionary history

The terminal Permian catastrophe, which killed off 95% of all types of life, cleared the world of all large therapsids and allowed the proterosuchids to become the top predators. Within the space of five million years the proterosuchids had evolved to fill a wide variety of terrestrial and semi-aquatic niches.[3] The proterosuchids represent perhaps the earliest adaptive radiation of the archosaurs. They gave rise to the Erythrosuchidae some time in the Early Triassic.

A 2023 study recovered a majority of proterosuchids outside of Proterosuchus and Sarmatosuchus as belonging to a distinct subfamily, the Chasmatosuchinae. Chasmatosuchinae contains many Triassic proterosuchids in addition to the only Permian proterosuchid, Archosaurus; this would suggest that an initial taxonomic diversification of the Proterosuchidae (including an initial taxonomic divergence between Proterosuchus and chasmatosuchines) had already occurred in the Permian.[1]

Classification

Phylogeny

Recent studies consider Proterosuchidae to be at least a partially paraphyletic grouping, meaning that it does not form a true clade with a single common ancestor and proterosuchids as its only descendants. Instead, they are a chain of successively basal archosauriforms.[4][5] Below is a cladogram from Ezcurra (2016), that reexamined all historical members of the "Proterosuchia" (a polyphyletic historical group including proterosuchids and erythrosuchids). The placement of fragmentary taxa that had to be removed to increase tree resolution are indicated by dashed lines (in the most derived position that they can be confidently assigned to). Taxa that are nomina dubia are indicated by the note "dubium". Bold terminal taxa are collapsed. Ezcurra (2016) recovered a monophyletic Proterosuchidae containing only Archosaurus and the species of Proterosuchus, however some species (e.g. Chasmatosuchus spp, Vonhuenia friedrichi) are too fragmentary to resolve whether they also fall into Proterosuchidae. Tasmaniosaurus, Fugusuchus, Sarmatosuchus, Cuyosuchus and the "Long Reef proterosuchid" (SAM P41754) on the other hand were recovered confidently outside of Proterosuchidae.[5]

Prolacertidae

SAM-PK-591

"Ankistrodon indicus" (dubium)

"Blomosuchus georgii" (dubium)

Tasmaniosaurus triassicus

 Archosauriformes 
 Chasmatosuchus 

Chasmatosuchus magnus

Chasmatosuchus rossicus

Gamosaurus lozovskii

Chasmatosuchus vjushkovi

Vonhuenia friedrichi

 Proterosuchidae 

Archosaurus rossicus

Proterosuchus fergusi

Proterosuchus alexanderi

Proterosuchus goweri

Proterosuchus yuani

Eorasaurus olsoni

Kalisuchus rewanensis

Fugusuchus hejiapanensis

Sarmatosuchus otschevi

Cuyosuchus huenei

 Erythrosuchidae 

SAM P41754

Uralosaurus magnus

Guchengosuchus shiguaiensis

other erythrosuchids

Eucrocopoda

previously assigned to Proterosuchidae

The following phylogeny for the Proterosuchidae sensu stricto was recovered by Ezcurra et al (2023):[1]

Proterosuchidae

Proterosuchus

"Chasmatosaurus" yuani

Chasmatosuchinae

Vonhuenia

Jaikosuchus

Gamosaurus

Chasmatosuchus

Tsylmosuchus

Samsarasuchus

Archosaurus

Genera

Genus[5] Status Age Location Description Images

Ankistrodon

nomen dubium Early Triassic India

Archosaurus

Valid Late Permian, Changhsingian Russia

Blomosuchus

nomen dubium Early Triassic, Induan Russia

Chasmatosuchus

Valid Early Triassic Russia
Gamosaurus Valid[1] Early Triassic Russia
Jaikosuchus Valid[1] Early Triassic Russia
Koilamasuchus Disputed Middle - Late Triassic Argentina

Proterosuchus

Valid Early Triassic South Africa
Samsarasuchus Valid Early Triassic India
Sarmatosuchus Disputed Early Triassic Russia
Tsylmosuchus Valid[1] Early Triassic Russia

Vonhuenia

Valid[1] Early Triassic, Induan Russia

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ezcurra, Martín D.; Bandyopadhyay, Saswati; Sengupta, Dhurjati P.; Sen, Kasturi; Sennikov, Andrey G.; Sookias, Roland B.; Nesbitt, Sterling J.; Butler, Richard J. (25 October 2023). "A new archosauriform species from the Panchet Formation of India and the diversification of Proterosuchidae after the end-Permian mass extinction". Royal Society Open Science. 10 (10). Bibcode:2023RSOS...1030387E. doi:10.1098/rsos.230387. ISSN 2054-5703. PMC 10598453. PMID 37885992.
  2. Julia Brenda Desojo, Randall B. Irmis, Sterling J. Nesbitt (2013). Anatomy, Phylogeny and Palaeobiology of Early Archosaurs and Their Kin. Geological Society. p. 20. ISBN 9781862393615. Retrieved 14 September 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. "Archosauria: Archosauriformes". Palaeos. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  4. Ezcurra, M.D.; Lecuona, A.; Martinelli, A. (2010). "A new basal archosauriform diapsid from the Lower Triassic of Argentina". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 30 (5): 1433–1450. Bibcode:2010JVPal..30.1433E. doi:10.1080/02724634.2010.501446. S2CID 83826840.
  5. 1 2 3 Ezcurra, M.D. (2016). The phylogenetic relationships of basal archosauromorphs, with an emphasis on the systematics of proterosuchian archosauriforms. PeerJ, e1778

Further reading

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