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Clade
Subclade

Taxon
Taxon
Sphenosuchia
Nominal Author
Bonaparte 1972
2nd Nominal Author
Taxon Status ACTIVE
Comments

There has been much debate about the monophyly of Sphenosuchia in the last 15 years, some arguing for its existence (e.g. Sereno and Wild 1992, Wu and Chatterjee 1993) and others against (e.g. Clark et al. 2001, Clark and Sues 2002). Recently Sues et al. (2003) again yielded a tree with weak support for sphenosuchian monophyly.

Here the taxon is anchored by one of its most derived members, Terrestrisuchus gracilis, and includes the eponymous, albeit more basal, Sphenosuchus acutus. In this way, use of the taxon Sphenosuchia, defined here for the first time, wwill be limited to clades that capture the historical essence of the name.

Potential Synonomy
Sphenosuchidae

Active Phylogenetic Definition
Active Definition
The most inclusive clade containing Terrestrisuchus gracilis Crush 1984 but not Crocodylus niloticus (Laurenti 1768) and including Sphenosuchus acutus Haughton 1915.
Shorthand
> Terrestrisuchus gracilis but not Crocodylus niloticus + Sphenosuchus acutus.
Definitional Author
Sereno 2005
Definition Status ORIGINAL
Definition Type STEM
Node-Stem Triplet NO
Other Triplet Taxa
Specifiers
Specifier(s) A
Terrestrisuchus gracilis
Specifier(s) B
Specifier(s) C
Crocodylus niloticus
Qualifiers
+Taxon
Sphenosuchus acutus
-Taxon
Datum
Taxonomic Content
Publication Year Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
2005

Inactive Taxon Status
Rejection Criteria
Critique
 

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