The phylogenetic relationships of neosuchian crocodiles and their implications for the convergent evolution of the longirostrine condition

摘要: Since their origin in the Late Triassic, crocodylomorphs have had a long history of evolutionary change. Numerous studies examined phylogeny, but none attempted to unify morphological characters into single, combined dataset. Following comprehensive review published character sets, we present new dataset for crocodylomorph clade Neosuchia consisting 569 112 taxa. For first time crocodylian phylogenetic studies, quantitative variation was treated as continuous data (82 characters). To provide best estimate neosuchian relationships, and investigate origins longirostry, these were analysed using variety approaches. Our results show that equally weighted parsimony Bayesian methods cluster unrelated longirostrine forms together, producing topology conflicts strongly with stratigraphic distributions. By contrast, applying extended implied weighting improves congruence removes clustering. The resulting topologies resolve major clades, confirming several recent hypotheses regarding placements particular species (e.g. Baryphracta deponiae member Diplocynodontinae) groups Tethysuchia non-eusuchian neosuchians). condition arose at least three times independently by modification maxilla premaxilla, accompanied skull roof changes unique each clade.