Paleosuchus

Paleosuchus; Temporal range: Late Pleistocene - Recent, 0.1–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
	Paleosuchus palpebrosus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauromorpha
Clade:	Archosauriformes
Order:	Crocodilia
Family:	Alligatoridae
Subfamily:	Caimaninae
Genus:	Paleosuchus; Gray, 1862
Species
	Paleosuchus palpebrosus; Paleosuchus trigonatus;

Paleosuchus is a South American genus of reptiles in the subfamily Caimaninae of the family Alligatoridae. They are the smallest members of the order Crocodilia in the Americas.^[2]

Classification

The genus name Paleosuchus is derived from the Greek palaios meaning "ancient" and soukhos meaning "crocodile god Sobek". This refers to the belief that this crocodile comes from an ancient lineage that diverged from other species of caimans some 30 million years ago.^[3]

At present, Paleosuchus contains only two members: the smooth-fronted or Schneider's dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus trigonatus) and Cuvier's dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus), both from South America.

Paleosuchus is distinguished from other caimans in the subfamily Caimaninae by the absence of an interorbital ridge and the presence of four teeth in the premaxilla region of the jaw, where other species of caimans have five.^[3] The relationships of extant (living) caimans can be shown in the cladogram below, based on molecular DNA-based phylogenetic studies:^[4]

Alligatoridae

Caimaninae

	Paleosuchus palpebrosus Cuvier's dwarf caiman

	Paleosuchus trigonatus Schneider's dwarf caiman

Jacarea

	Caiman crocodilus Spectacled caiman

	Caiman yacare Yacare caiman

Caiman latirostris Broad-snouted caiman

Melanosuchus niger Black caiman

Alligatorinae

	Alligator sinensis Chinese alligator

	Alligator mississippiensis American alligator

Species

The genus contains the following two extant species^[5] and a yet unnamed fossil species.^[6]

Genus **Paleosuchus** – Gray, 1862 – two species
Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Cuvier's dwarf caiman	Paleosuchus palpebrosus Cuvier, 1807	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad, and Venezuela	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Smooth-fronted caiman	Paleosuchus trigonatus (Schneider, 1801)	Amazon and Orinoco Basins	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC

References

^ 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.
^ Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey (2014). The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed at http://animaldiversity.org.
^ ^a ^b Britton, Adam (2009-01-01). "Paleosuchus palpebrosus (Cuvier, 1807)". Crocodilian species list. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
^ Bittencourt, Pedro Senna; Campos, Zilca; Muniz, Fabio de Lima; Marioni, Boris; Souza, Bruno Campos; Da Silveira, Ronis; de Thoisy, Benoit; Hrbek, Tomas; Farias, Izeni Pires (22 March 2019). "Evidence of cryptic lineages within a small South American crocodilian: the Schneider's dwarf caiman Paleosuchus trigonatus (Alligatoridae: Caimaninae)". PeerJ. 7: e6580. doi:10.7717/peerj.6580. PMC 6433001. PMID 30931177.
^ Alderton, D. (1991). Crocodiles and Alligators of the World. New York: Facts on File Publications.
^ Salas-Gismondi, Rodolfo; Flynn, John J.; Baby, Patrice; Tejada-Lara, Julia V.; Wesselingh, Frank P.; Antoine, Pierre-Olivier (2015-04-07). "A Miocene hyperdiverse crocodylian community reveals peculiar trophic dynamics in proto-Amazonian mega-wetlands". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 282 (1804): 20142490. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2490. PMC 4375856. PMID 25716785.

External links

Media related to Paleosuchus at Wikimedia Commons

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[Rio2021-1] 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.

[2] Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey (2014). The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed at http://animaldiversity.org.

[Britton-3] Britton, Adam (2009-01-01). "Paleosuchus palpebrosus (Cuvier, 1807)". Crocodilian species list. Retrieved 2013-10-28.

[4] Bittencourt, Pedro Senna; Campos, Zilca; Muniz, Fabio de Lima; Marioni, Boris; Souza, Bruno Campos; Da Silveira, Ronis; de Thoisy, Benoit; Hrbek, Tomas; Farias, Izeni Pires (22 March 2019). "Evidence of cryptic lineages within a small South American crocodilian: the Schneider's dwarf caiman Paleosuchus trigonatus (Alligatoridae: Caimaninae)". PeerJ. 7: e6580. doi:10.7717/peerj.6580. PMC 6433001. PMID 30931177.

[5] Alderton, D. (1991). Crocodiles and Alligators of the World. New York: Facts on File Publications.

[6] Salas-Gismondi, Rodolfo; Flynn, John J.; Baby, Patrice; Tejada-Lara, Julia V.; Wesselingh, Frank P.; Antoine, Pierre-Olivier (2015-04-07). "A Miocene hyperdiverse crocodylian community reveals peculiar trophic dynamics in proto-Amazonian mega-wetlands". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 282 (1804): 20142490. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2490. PMC 4375856. PMID 25716785.

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