Genus of caiman
Melanosuchus Ancient Greek μέλας (mélas ), meaning "black", and σούχος (soúkhos ), meaning "crocodile", is agenus ofcaiman . The genus is most commonly referred to as the "Black Caimans". Theblack caiman of South America is the soleextant (living) species, and is the largest living member of thesubfamily Caimaninae , as well as the entire alligatorfamily Alligatoridae .
There are two known valid species ofMelanosuchus , one extant and one extinct:
Melanosuchus fisheri , named by Medina in 1976, from theLate Miocene Urumaco Formation ofVenezuela is sometimes considered as anomen dubium [ 1] [ 2] Melanosuchus niger .[ 3]
Melanosuchus is a member of thesubfamily Caimaninae , which contains the two other extant generaCaiman Paleosuchus cladogram shows the relationships of all extant genera withinCrocodilia (excluding separate extinct taxa), based on molecularphylogenetic studies.[ 4] [ 5] [ 6] [ 7]
^a b Souza-Filho, J.P. (2020)."On a new Melanosuchus species (Alligatoroidea: Caimaninae) from Solimões Formation (Eocene-Pliocene), Northern Brazil, and evolution of Caimaninae" (PDF) .Zootaxa 4894 (4):561– 593.doi :10.11646/zootaxa.4894.4.5 .PMID 33311064 .S2CID 229178080 . ^ Bona, Paula; Blanco, M. Victoria Fernandez; Schever, Torsten M.; Both, Christian (2017)."Shedding Light on the Taxonomic Diversity of the South American Miocene Caimans: The Status ofMelanosuchus fisheri (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea)" (PDF) .Ameghiniana 54 (6):681– 687.doi :10.5710/AMGH.08.06.2017.3103 .S2CID 55376533 . ^ Christian Foth; María Victoria Fernandez Blanco; Paula Bona; Torsten M. Scheyer (2018)."Cranial shape variation in jacarean caimanines (Crocodylia, Alligatoroidea) and its implications in the taxonomic status of extinct species: The case ofMelanosuchus fisheri " (PDF) .Journal of Morphology .279 (2):259– 273.doi :10.1002/jmor.20769 .PMID 29139133 .S2CID 31120204 . ^ Michael S. Y. Lee; Adam M. Yates (27 June 2018)."Tip-dating and homoplasy: reconciling the shallow molecular divergences of modern gharials with their long fossil" .Proceedings of the Royal Society B 285 (1881).doi :10.1098/rspb.2018.1071 PMC 6030529 PMID 30051855 . ^ Hekkala, E.; Gatesy, J.; Narechania, A.; Meredith, R.; Russello, M.; Aardema, M. L.; Jensen, E.; Montanari, S.; Brochu, C.; Norell, M.; Amato, G. (2021-04-27)."Paleogenomics illuminates the evolutionary history of the extinct Holocene "horned" crocodile of Madagascar, Voay robustus" .Communications Biology .4 (1): 505.doi :10.1038/s42003-021-02017-0 ISSN 2399-3642 .PMC 8079395 PMID 33907305 . ^ Rio, Jonathan P.; Mannion, Philip D. (6 September 2021)."Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem" .PeerJ 9 e12094.doi :10.7717/peerj.12094 PMC 8428266 PMID 34567843 . ^ Gatesy, J.; Amato, G. (2008). "The rapid accumulation of consistent molecular support for intergeneric crocodylian relationships".Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48 (3):1232– 1237.doi :10.1016/j.ympev.2008.02.009 .PMID 18372192 .
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