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The first fossil materials were collected by an expedition of South African Museum in April 1963 led by Alfred W. Crompton. [1] The materials were collected from the Lower Jurassic Red Bed Formation (= Upper Elliot Formation) of the Stormberg, so that as soon as they found out that the fossils belongs to a new crocodilian species, they named the species Orthosuchus Stormbergi in a paper ...
The name Pseudosuchia was originally given to a group of superficially crocodile-like prehistoric reptiles from the Triassic period, but fell out of use in the late 20th century, especially after the name Crurotarsi was established in 1990 to label the clade (evolutionary grouping) of archosaurs encompassing most reptiles previously identified as pseudosuchians.
Modern crocodilians, a subgroup of Neosuchia, emerged during the Late Cretaceous. [8] Crocodylomorph diversity was severely reduced by the end-Cretaceous extinction event . [ 9 ] The last group of terrestrially adapted crocodylomorphs was the Sebecidae , a group of large predatory notosuchians which persisted in South America until the middle ...
Archosaurs include the only living dinosaur group — birds — and the reptile crocodilians, plus all extinct dinosaurs, extinct crocodilian relatives, and pterosaurs. Archosaur palaeontology is the scientific study of those animals, especially as they existed before the Holocene Epoch began about 11,700 years ago.
Two names were proposed for crocodile-line archosaurs before Crurotarsi was erected. The first, Pseudosuchia, was established as a stem-based clade in 1985. [5] It includes crocodiles and all archosaurs more closely related to crocodiles than to birds. The second, Crocodylotarsi, was named in 1988, possibly as a replacement for Pseudosuchia. [6]
Thalattosuchians are described as an ancient ‘sister’ of modern-day crocodiles’ ancestors 185 million-year-old crocodile ancestor discovered on Britain’s Jurassic Coast Skip to main content
But dinosaur brain cases more closely resemble those of modern-day reptiles like crocodiles, Caspar said. For animals like crocodiles, brain matter occupies only 30% to 50% of the brain cavity.
Modern crocodilians also have a deltopectoral crest, but it is positioned laterally and anchors to muscles that pull the arms up to the sides, not forward. The muscle thought to have facilitated forward movement in Stratiotosuchus is called the deltoideus clavicularis ; it is also present in modern crocodilians, which use it for high walking.