Elosuchus

Elosuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform that lived during the Middle Cretaceous of what is now Africa (Niger, Morocco, and Algeria).

Elosuchus Temporal range: Cenomanian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Skull of E. cherifiensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauria
Clade:	Pseudosuchia
Clade:	Crocodylomorpha
Family:	†Pholidosauridae
Genus:	†Elosuchus de Broin, 2002
Species
†E. cherifiensis (Lavocat, 1955) de Broin, 2002 †E. broinae Meunier & Larsson, 2016[1]

6 cm tooth of Elosuchus cherifiensis, Max Rouger collection.

Description and taxonomy

Elosuchus had an elongated snout like a gharial and was probably a fully aquatic animal. The type species, E. cherifiensis from Algeria and Morocco, was originally described as a species of Thoracosaurus by Lavocat,^[2] but was recognized as a genus separate from Thoracosaurus by de Broin in 2002. Elosuchus felixi, described from the Echkar Formation of Niger, was renamed Fortignathus in 2016 and is either a dyrosaurid relative or a non-hyposaurine dyrosaurid.^[3][4] The large skull measuring approximately 1.08 m (3.5 ft) long indicates a body length of up to 7.7 metres (25 ft).^[1] In 2022, the largest known premaxilla specimen was referred to the genus, suggesting a maximum skull length of 1.35 m (4.4 ft).^[5]

Phylogeny

Speculative life restoration of E. cherifiensis

de Broin (2002) created the family Elosuchidae to contain Elosuchus and the genus Stolokrosuchus from Niger.^[3] However, recent phylogenetic analyses usually find Stolokrosuchus to be one of the basalmost neosuchian, only distantly related to Elosuchus.^[6][7][8][9] Some analyses find a monophyletic Pholidosauridae that includes Elosuchus,^[8] while other analyses find Elosuchus to nest with taxa like Sarcosuchus in a clade as a sister-taxon to the node Dyrosauridae+Pholidosauridae.^[7][9]