Protosuchia

Protosuchia is a group of extinct Mesozoic crocodyliforms. They were small in size and terrestrial. In phylogenetic terms, Protosuchia is considered an informal group because it is a grade of basal crocodyliforms, not a true clade.

Protosuchia

Smokeybjb · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
CrocodyliformesPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Diapsida

Time the record covers

At least 122 million years on record.

The record covers at least 205.7 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 18 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 18 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 6 of 18 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 18 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1 of 18 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 9 of 18 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 18 occurrencesLate Cretaceous240–235 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences235–229 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences229–223 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences223–217 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences217–212 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences212–206 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences206–200 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences200–195 Mya — about 3 occurrences195–189 Mya — about 1 occurrence189–183 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences166–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–155 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences155–149 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences149–143 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences143–137 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 3 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 4 occurrences115–109 Mya — about 1 occurrence86–80 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences80–75 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences75–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences205.7 Mya83.6 Mya240 Mya69 Mya

18 occurrences of Protosuchia on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

18 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

9 formations

Ilek — 55.90°N, 87.96°EIlek — 56.53°N, 91.81°EIlek — 55.97°N, 88.09°EIlek — 55.88°N, 88.32°EIlek — 56.57°N, 91.85°EIlek — 56.64°N, 91.99°EElliot — 28.52°S, 28.62°EElliot — 28.55°S, 27.95°EElliot — 28.53°S, 28.50°EClarens — 30.97°S, 27.60°ELithofacies Association II — 35.87°N, 78.90°WElliot — 30.00°S, 28.50°EForest Sandstone — 16.23°S, 30.09°EDjadokhta — 42.08°N, 102.17°EShar Teg — 44.12°N, 95.82°EHasandong — 34.97°N, 127.92°E

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The named rock units Protosuchia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Protosuchia and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Protosuchia and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

128 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Protosuchia, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

14 references

Each of the 18 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 2 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Protosuchia

Credit
Smokeybjb
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCrocodyliformes through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Mook 1934)