Parasuchidae

Parasuchidae is a clade of phytosaurs more derived than Diandongosuchus, a basal phytosaur. This family was phylogenetically defined by Christian Kammerer and colleagues in 2015 as the last common ancestor and all descendants of Wannia scurriensis, Parasuchus hislopi, and Mystriosuchus planirostris.^[1] It encompasses nearly all phytosaurs, including early Parasuchus-grade forms as well as a more restricted clade of more specialized phytosaurs. This more restricted clade is traditionally known as the family Phytosauridae and more recently as the subfamily Mystriosuchinae, defined by Kammerer et al. 2015 as the last common ancestor and all descendants of Mystriosuchus planirostris and Angistorhinus grandis.^[1]

Parasuchidae Temporal range: Carnian - Rhaetian, PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Skull of Machaeroprosopus mccauleyi
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauromorpha
Clade:	Archosauriformes
Clade:	Crurotarsi
Order:	†Phytosauria
Family:	†Parasuchidae Lydekker, 1885
Subgroups
†Arganarhinus †Compsosaurus †Ebrachosuchus †Paleorhinus †Parasuchus †Phytosaurus †Wannia Mystriosuchinae †Angistorhinus †Brachysuchus †Colossosuchus †Jupijkam †Protome †Rutiodon †Volcanosuchus †Leptosuchomorpha

Parasuchids have been recovered from Late Triassic deposits in Europe, North America, India, Morocco, Thailand, Brazil, Greenland^[2] and Madagascar. In their osteology of Parasuchus, Kammerer et al. (2016) suggested using Parasuchidae to include taxa traditionally included in Phytosauridae as well as Parasuchus-grade taxa.^[3] Stocker et al. (2017) use the phytosaur classification advocated by Kammerer et al. (2016) by recovering Diandongosuchus as the basalmost phytosaur outside Parasuchidae, noting that Diandongosuchus has a shorter snout than parasuchids.^[4]

References

1. Christian F. Kammerer; Richard J. Butler; Saswati Bandyopadhyay; Michelle R. Stocker (2016). "Relationships of the Indian phytosaur Parasuchus hislopi Lydekker, 1885" (PDF). Papers in Palaeontology. 2 (1): 1–23. doi:10.1002/spp2.1022. S2CID 83780331.
2. Mateus, O., Clemmensen L., Klein N., Wings O., Frobøse N., Milàn J., Adolfssen J., & Estrup E. (2014). The Late Triassic of Jameson Land revisited: new vertebrate findings and the first phytosaur from Greenland. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Program and Abstracts, 2014, 182.
3. Kammerer, C. F., Butler, R. J., Bandyopadhyay, S., Stocker, M. R. (2016), Relationships of the Indian phytosaur Parasuchus hislopi Lydekker, 1885. Papers in Palaeontology, 2: 1–23. doi: 10.1002/spp2.1022
4. Michelle R. Stocker; Li-Jun Zhao; Sterling J. Nesbitt; Xiao-Chun Wu; Chun Li (2017). "A Short-Snouted, Middle Triassic Phytosaur and its Implications for the Morphological Evolution and Biogeography of Phytosauria". Scientific Reports. 7: Article number 46028. doi:10.1038/srep46028.