Elosuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform that lived during the Middle Cretaceous of what is now Africa (Niger, Morocco and Algeria).
Elosuchus Temporal range:
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Skull of E. cherifiensis | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauria |
Clade: | Pseudosuchia |
Clade: | Crocodylomorpha |
Clade: | Crocodyliformes |
Family: | †Pholidosauridae |
Genus: | †Elosuchus de Broin, 2002 |
Species | |
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Elosuchus had an elongated snout like a gharial and was probably a fully aquatic animal. The type species, E. cherifiensis from Algeria and Morocco, was originally described as a species of Thoracosaurus by Lavocat,[2] but was recognized as a genus separate from Thoracosaurus by de Broin in 2002. Elosuchus felixi, described from the Echkar Formation of Niger, was renamed Fortignathus in 2016 and is either a dyrosaurid relative or a non-hyposaurine dyrosaurid.[3][4] The largest known skull indicates a body length of up to 7.7 metres (25 ft 3 in).[1]
de Broin (2002) created the family Elosuchidae to contain Elosuchus and the genus Stolokrosuchus from Niger.[3] However, recent phylogenetic analyses usually find Stolokrosuchus to be one of the basalmost neosuchian, only distantly related to Elosuchus.[5][6][7][8] Some analyses find a monophyletic Pholidosauridae that includes Elosuchus,[7] while other analyses find Elosuchus to nest with taxa like Sarcosuchus in a clade as a sister-taxon to the node Dyrosauridae+Pholidosauridae.[6][8]