Sebecidae Explained

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.

The oldest known member of the group is Ogresuchus furatus known from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Tremp Formation (Spain).[1] Other records of the group are known from the Eocene of Europe.[2] 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; although it has been suggested that at least some forms could have survived until the Miocene-Pliocene boundary in Brazil.[3]

This group included many medium- and large-sized genera, from Sebecus to the giant 6adj=midNaNadj=mid Barinasuchus from the Miocene.[4] They are thought to have served as apex terrestrial predators of their ecosystems.[5]

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".[6] The following cladogram simplified after Diego Pol and Jaime E. Powell (2011).[7]

Notes and References

  1. Sellés . A. G. . Blanco . A. . Vila . B. . Marmi . J. . López-Soriano . F. J. . Llácer . S. . Frigola . J. . Canals . M. . Galobart . À. . 2020 . A small Cretaceous crocodyliform in a dinosaur nesting ground and the origin of sebecids . Scientific Reports . 10 . 1 . Article number 15293 . 10.1038/s41598-020-71975-y . 32943663 . 7499430 . 2020NatSR..1015293S . free .
  2. Martin . Jeremy E. . Pochat-Cottilloux . Yohan . Laurent . Yves . Perrier . Vincent . Robert . Emmanuel . Antoine . Pierre-Olivier . 2022-10-28 . Anatomy and phylogeny of an exceptionally large sebecid (Crocodylomorpha) from the middle Eocene of southern France . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . en . 42 . 4 . 10.1080/02724634.2023.2193828 . 2022JVPal..42E3828M . 0272-4634.
  3. Liccardo, Antonio, and Luiz Carlos Weinschütz. "Registro inédito de fósseis de vertebrados na Bacia Sedimentar de Curitiba (PR) ." Revista Brasileira de Geociências 40.3 (2010): 330-338.
  4. Book: Salias-Gismondi . R. . Antoine . P. O. . Baby . P. . Brusset . S. . Benammi . M. . Espurt . N. . de Franceschi . D. . Pujos . F. . Tejada . J. . Urbina . Middle Miocene Crocodiles From the Fitzcarrald Arch, Amazonian Peru . 2007 . Instituto Geológical y Minero de España . 978-84-7840-707-1 . 4 . May 12, 2010 . 8 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090704205152/http://www.igme.es/4empsla/libro/62.pdf . July 4, 2009 .
  5. Pochat-Cottilloux . Yohan . Martin . Jeremy E. . Faure-Brac . Mathieu G. . Jouve . Stéphane . de Muizon . Christian . Cubo . Jorge . Lécuyer . Christophe . Fourel . François . Amiot . Romain . 1 September 2023 . A multi-isotopic study reveals the palaeoecology of a sebecid from the Paleocene of Bolivia . . en . 625 . 111667 . 10.1016/j.palaeo.2023.111667 . 15 November 2024 . Elsevier Science Direct.
  6. Leardi . J. M. . Pol . D. . Montefeltro . F. . Marinho . T. S. . Ruiz . J. V. . Bravo . G. G. . Pinheiro . A. E. P. . Godoy . P. L. . Nicholl . C. S. C. . Lecuona . A. . Larsson . H. C. E. . Phylogenetic nomenclature of Notosuchia (Crocodylomorpha; Crocodyliformes) . 2024 . Bulletin of Phylogenetic Nomenclature . 1 . 3 . 44–82 . 10.11646/bpn.1.3.2 . free .
  7. Diego Pol and Jaime E. Powell . 2011 . A new sebecid mesoeucrocodylian from the Rio Loro Formation (Palaeocene) of north-western Argentina . Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . 163 . S7–S36 . 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00714.x . free . 11336/69518 . free .

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