Tethysuchia

Tethysuchia is an extinct clade of neosuchian mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs from the late Middle Jurassic (Bathonian stage) to the Early Eocene (Ypresian stage) of Asia, Europe, North America and South America.[1] It was named by the French paleontologist Eric Buffetaut in 1982 as a suborder.[2] Tethysuchia was considered to be a synonym of Dyrosauridae or Pholidosauridae for many years. In most phylogenetic analyses the node Dyrosauridae+Pholidosauridae was strongly supported. De Andrade et al. (2011) suggested that Tethysuchia be resurrected for that node. They defined it as a node-based taxon "composed of Pholidosaurus purbeckensis (Mansel-Pleydell, 1888) and Dyrosaurus phosphaticus (Thomas, 1893), their common ancestor and all its descendants". In their analysis they found that the support for Tethysuchia is actually stronger than the support for Thalattosuchia. The following cladogram shows the position of Tethysuchia among the Neosuchia sensu this study.[1]

Neosuchia

Atoposauridae   Theriosuchus pusillus     Theriosuchus guimarotae           Rugosuchus       Bernissartia     Eusuchia           Stolokrosuchus       Goniopholididae       Thalattosuchia   Tethysuchia Elosuchidae     Sarcosuchus hartti     Sarcosuchus imperator         Vectisuchus     Elosuchus         Pholidosauridae Pholidosaurus schaumburgensis   Dyrosauridae   Congosaurus     Guarinisuchus       Dyrosaurus maghribensis     Dyrosaurus phosphaticus

Tethysuchia Temporal range: Bathonian–Ypresian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Pholidosaurus purbeckensis skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Neosuchia
Suborder:	†Tethysuchia Buffetaut, 1982

References

1. Marco Brandalise de Andrade, Richard Edmonds, Michael J. Benton and Remmert Schouten (2011). "A new Berriasian species of Goniopholis (Mesoeucrocodylia, Neosuchia) from England, and a review of the genus". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 163 (s1): S66–S108. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00709.x.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
2. Eric Buffetaut (1982). "Radiation evolutive, paléoécologie et biogéographie des crocodiliens mésosuchiens". Memoires de la Societé Géologique de France. 142: 1–88.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)