Eosuchia

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Eosuchia Fossil range: Permian-Triassic
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Subclass: Diapsida Order: Eosuchia Broom, 1924

Eosuchians are an extinct order of diapsid reptiles. Depending on which taxa are included the order may have ranged from the late Carboniferous to the Eocene but the consensus is that eosuchians are confined to the Permian and Triassic.

A definition for inclusion in the order is difficult: it is almost easier to list the primitively-diapsid reptiles that have not been included at one time or another. The order has almost been treated almost as a dustbin for diapsids that are not obviously lepidosaurian or archosaurian. One consequence has been Romer's suggestion of the alternative order Younginiformes to be applied strictly to those forms with the primitive diapsid form, in particular, a complete lowermost arch as the quadratojugal and jugal bones of the skull meet. ^[1]

The one constant eosuchian has been Younginia, a small lizard-shaped reptile from the Upper Permian of South Africa. This and a couple of other genera, which may or may not be synonymous with Younginia, make up the family Younginidae.

The tangasaurids, a family that includes forms apparently adapted for swimming in fresh water, is also usually included.^[2]

In some phylogenies Eosuchia has been treated (probably erroneously) as a sister lepidosaur taxon to Squamata and Rhynchocephalia.^[3]

[edit] Classification

Eosuchia s.s. (Syn:Younginiformes)

?Noteosuchus

Family: Galesphyridae

Galesphyrus

Family: Younginidae

Heleosuchus

Thadeosaurus

Younginia

Family: Tangasauridae

Hovasaurus

Tangasaurus

Kenyasaurus

[edit] References