Proterochampsia: an endemic archosauriform clade from South America

TROTTEYN, MARÍA JIMENA; ANDREA ARCUCCI; TIAGO RAUGUST

Anatomy, Phylogeny and Palaeobiology of Basal Archosaurs.

Geological Society, London, Special Publications

Año: 2013; p. 1 - 33

Proterochampsia is a monophyletic group of crocodile-like archosauriforms currently endemic to the late Middle and early Late Triassic of South America considered as one of the potential successive sister-taxa of the crown group Archosauria. The proterochampsians come from the Ischigualasto-Villa Unio´n Basin in the west of Argentina and the Parana Basin in the south of Brazil. The traditional composition of the group includes the genera Cerritosaurus Price 1946, Proterochampsa Reig 1959 (with two species: P. barrionuevoi in Argentina and P. nodosa Barberena 1982 in Brazil), Chanaresuchus Romer (with two species from Argentina: C. bonapartei Romer and C. ischigualastensis Trotteyn et al. 2012), Gualosuchus reigi Romer 1971 and Tropidosuchus romeri Arcucci 1990. After a precladistic history of confusion about their relationships with crocodilians, in the last 20 years new discoveries of taxa, and more systematic and phylogenetic studies, have clarified their position as non-archosaurian archosauriforms and their relationships with other Triassic archosaurs.