Notosuchia

Notosuchia is a clade of primarily Gondwanan mesoeucrocodylian crocodylomorphs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Some phylogenies recover Sebecosuchia as a clade within Notosuchia, others as a sister group ; if Sebecosuchia is included within Notosuchia its existence is pushed into the Late Miocene or Early Pliocene, about 7 to 4.5 million years ago. Fossils have been found from South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Notosuchia was a clade of terrestrial crocodilians that evolved a range of feeding behaviours, including herbivory (Chimaerasuchus), omnivory (Simosuchus), and terrestrial hypercarnivory (Baurusuchus). It included many members with highly derived traits unusual for crocodylomorphs, including mammal-like teeth, flexible bands of shield-like body armor similar to those of armadillos (Armadillosuchus), and possibly fleshy cheeks and pig-like snouts (Notosuchus). The clade was first named in 1971 by Zulma Gasparini and has since undergone many phylogenetic revisions.

Notosuchia

CaptMondo · 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
MesoeucrocodyliaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Pseudosuchia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 158 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 2 of 261 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 261 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 30 of 261 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 141 of 261 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 10 of 261 occurrencesEocene — about 52 of 261 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 261 occurrencesMiocene — about 18 of 261 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 261 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 261 occurrences171–166 Mya — about 2 occurrences166–160 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 2 occurrences120–114 Mya — about 10 occurrences114–109 Mya — about 11 occurrences109–103 Mya — about 5 occurrences103–97 Mya — about 7 occurrences97–92 Mya — about 6 occurrences92–86 Mya — about 5 occurrences86–80 Mya — about 28 occurrences80–74 Mya — about 19 occurrences74–69 Mya — about 46 occurrences69–63 Mya — about 34 occurrences63–57 Mya — about 5 occurrences57–52 Mya — about 8 occurrences52–46 Mya — about 11 occurrences46–40 Mya — about 19 occurrences40–35 Mya — about 15 occurrences35–29 Mya — about 4 occurrences29–23 Mya — about 5 occurrences23–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–12 Mya — about 12 occurrences12–6.0 Mya — about 4 occurrences6.0–308 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences165.3 Mya7.246 Mya171 Mya308 ka

261 occurrences of Notosuchia on record, most of them in the Late 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

261 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

79 formations

Adamantina — 21.94°S, 51.37°WAdamantina — 21.44°S, 50.17°WAdamantina — 20.57°S, 50.47°WAdamantina — 20.34°S, 50.55°WAdamantina — 21.22°S, 48.57°WAdamantina — 17.70°S, 40.77°WAdamantina — 19.34°S, 49.92°WAdamantina — 22.31°S, 50.03°WAdamantina — 19.51°S, 50.11°WAdamantina — 21.57°S, 51.35°WAdamantina — 21.30°S, 48.48°WAdamantina — 22.34°S, 49.95°WAdamantina — 22.05°S, 51.55°WAdamantina — 21.14°S, 48.97°WAdamantina — 22.12°S, 51.37°WAdamantina — 20.35°S, 49.28°WAdamantina — 21.22°S, 48.51°WAdamantina — 20.28°S, 50.25°WAdamantina — 21.33°S, 48.58°WAdamantina — 22.00°S, 49.00°WMaevarano — 15.91°S, 46.58°EMaevarano — 15.98°S, 46.05°EMaevarano — 16.12°S, 45.74°EBajo de la Carpa — 38.95°S, 68.23°WBajo de la Carpa — 38.94°S, 68.06°WBajo de la Carpa — 37.38°S, 68.90°WBajo de la Carpa — 39.00°S, 68.00°WBajo de la Carpa — 39.12°S, 67.63°WBajo de la Carpa — 39.05°S, 67.58°WVitakri — 29.68°N, 69.37°EDensuș-Ciula — 45.62°N, 22.78°EDinosaur Beds — 10.28°S, 34.03°ESarmiento — 45.40°S, 67.72°WSarmiento — 43.75°S, 69.58°WSarmiento — 45.40°S, 67.75°WSarmiento — 45.33°S, 68.00°WElrhaz — 16.43°N, 9.12°EElrhaz — 16.77°N, 9.38°EElrhaz — 16.70°N, 9.33°EVillavieja — 3.26°N, 75.17°WVillavieja — 3.25°N, 75.17°WPozo — 7.33°S, 74.95°WPozo — 7.33°S, 74.95°WPozo — 6.57°S, 76.27°WCandeleros — 39.63°S, 68.70°WCandeleros — 39.10°S, 68.62°WLumbrera — 23.25°S, 65.58°WLumbrera — 25.83°S, 65.45°WLumbrera — 25.72°S, 65.40°WPresidente Prudente — 21.94°S, 51.37°WAïn el Guettar — 33.18°N, 10.26°EAïn el Guettar — 32.68°N, 10.17°ESanta Lucía — 17.98°S, 65.60°WJibou — 47.26°N, 23.26°ECorrales — 41.32°N, 5.71°WCorrales — 41.37°N, 5.75°WCorrales — 41.37°N, 5.72°WKoum — 8.35°N, 14.79°EInbeceten — 15.05°N, 6.03°EJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 48.01°N, 108.91°WSerra da Galga — 19.72°S, 47.74°WEchkar — 17.93°N, 5.62°EGuichón — 32.35°S, 57.20°WAlcântara — 2.48°S, 44.46°W

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The named rock units Notosuchia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 55 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 35 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Notosuchia and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Notosuchia and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,386 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 221 sites for Notosuchia, 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

154 references

Each of the 261 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. 142 further references are not listed. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Notosuchia

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

No 3D scan of Notosuchia was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itMesoeucrocodylia through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gasparini 1971)