Neosuchia
Clade of reptiles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neosuchia is a clade within Mesoeucrocodylia that includes all modern extant crocodilians and their closest fossil relatives.[1] It is defined as the most inclusive clade containing all crocodylomorphs more closely related to Crocodylus niloticus (the Nile Crocodile) than to Notosuchus terrestris.[2] Members of Neosuchia generally share a crocodilian-like bodyform adapted to freshwater aquatic life, as opposed to the terrestrial habits of more basal crocodylomorph groups.[3] The earliest neosuchian is suggested to be the Early Jurassic Calsoyasuchus, which lived during the Sinemurian and Pliensbachian stages in North America. It is often identified as a member of Goniopholididae,[4] though this is disputed, and the taxon may lie outside Neosuchia, which places the earliest records of the group in the Middle Jurassic.[3]
| Neosuchia Temporal range: Early Jurassic - Recent, | |
|---|---|
| Crocodylus niloticus, a modern crocodylid | |
| Sarcosuchus imperator, a pholidosaurid from North Africa in the Early Cretaceous | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
| Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
| Clade: | Metasuchia |
| Clade: | Neosuchia Benton & Clark, 1988 |
| Subgroups | |
| |
Characteristics

Members of Neosuchia have a wide diversity of skull shapes. Several groups convergently evolved elongate gharial-like skulls, which makes determining phylogenetic relationships of these taxa problematic.[5]
Phylogeny
Cladogram from Groh et al. 2022:[6]