Extinct genus of reptiles
Portugalosuchus Portugal ") is anextinct genus ofeusuchian crocodyliform that was possibly abasal crocodylian – if so then it would be the oldest known crocodylian to date.[ 2] type species isP. azenhae described in 2018,[ 2] Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian )-agedTentugal Formation inPortugal .[ 3] morphological study recoveredPortugalosuchus withinCrocodylia as a member ofGavialidae closely related to similar "thoracosaurs" (e.g.Thoracosaurus [ 1] tip dating analysis incorporating both morphological andDNA data placedPortugalosuchus outside of Crocodylia, as the sister taxon of the familyAllodaposuchidae . Acladogram simplified after that analysis is shown below:[ 4]
The morphology-based phylogenetic analyses based on the new neuroanatomical data obtained from its skull using micro-CT scans suggested that this taxon is a crown group crocodilian and a member of the 'thoracosaurs', recovered as a sister taxon ofThoracosaurus [ 5] [ 6]
^a b 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 . ^a b Octávio Mateus; Eduardo Puértolas-Pascual; Pedro M. Callapez (2018). "A new eusuchian crocodylomorph from the Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous) of Portugal reveals novel implications on the origin of Crocodylia".Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society .186 (2):501– 528.doi :10.1093/zoolinnean/zly064 . ^ "Portugalosuchus " . Fossilworks. Retrieved17 December 2021 .^ Darlim, G.; Lee, M. S. Y.; Walter, J.; Rabi, M. (2022)."The impact of molecular data on the phylogenetic position of the putative oldest crown crocodilian and the age of the clade" .Biology Letters .18 (2): 20210603.doi :10.1098/rsbl.2021.0603 .PMC 8825999 PMID 35135314 . ^ Puértolas‐Pascual, Eduardo; Kuzmin, Ivan T.; Serrano‐Martínez, Alejandro; Mateus, Octávio (2023-02-02)."Neuroanatomy of the crocodylomorphPortugalosuchus azenhae from the late cretaceous of Portugal" .Journal of Anatomy : joa.13836.doi :10.1111/joa.13836 ISSN 0021-8782 . ^ 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 .
