Sebecidae

Sebecidae is an extinct family of prehistoric terrestrial sebecosuchian crocodylomorphs, known from the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic of Europe and South America. They were the latest surviving group of non-crocodilian crocodylomorphs.

Sebecids Temporal range: Late Cretaceous - Late Miocene/Early Pliocene, 67.6–4.5 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Skull of Sebecus icaeorhinus
Skeleton of Ogresuchus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauria
Clade:	Pseudosuchia
Clade:	Crocodylomorpha
Clade:	†Notosuchia
Clade:	†Sebecosuchia
Clade:	†Sebecia
Family:	†Sebecidae Simpson, 1937
Subgroups
†Ayllusuchus †Barinasuchus †Bretesuchus †Dentaneosuchus[1] †Eremosuchus? †Ilchunaia? †Langstonia †Lorosuchus †Ogresuchus †Sahitisuchus †Sebecus †Zulmasuchus
Synonyms
Bretesuchidae Gasparini, Fernandez & Powell, 1993

The oldest known member of the group is Ogresuchus furatus known from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Tremp Formation (Spain).^[2] Other records of the group are known from the Eocene of Europe.^[3] Sebecids were diverse, abundant and broadly distributed in South America (mostly in Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia) during the Cenozoic, from the Paleocene until the Middle Miocene.^[4] The youngest known sebecids identified as cf. Sebecus sp. are reported from the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene strata of the Dominican Republic.^[5]

This group included many medium- and large-sized genera, from Sebecus to the giant 6-metre-long (20 ft) Barinasuchus from the Miocene.^[6] They are thought to have served as apex terrestrial predators of their ecosystems.^[7]

Phylogeny

Juan Leardi and colleagues in 2024 defined Sebecidae in PhyloCode as "the least inclusive clade containing Sebecus icaeorhinus, Bretesuchus bonapartei, Barinasuchus arveloi, and Sahitisuchus fluminensis".^[8] The following cladogram simplified after Diego Pol and Jaime E. Powell (2011).^[4]

Sebecosuchia	Pehuenchesuchus Cynodontosuchus Baurusuchidae Pabwehshi Stratiotosuchus Baurusuchus pachecoi Baurusuchus salgadoensis Bergisuchidae Bergisuchus Iberosuchidae Iberosuchus Sebecidae Lorosuchus Barinasuchus Ayllusuchus Bretesuchus Lumbrera form Langstonia Sebecus Zulmasuchus