Rauisuchidae

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Rauisuchidae
Fossil range: Ladinian/Carnian to Norian

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Subclass:	Diapsida
Infraclass:	Archosauromorpha
(unranked)	Crurotarsi
Order:	Rauisuchia
Family:	Rauisuchidae von Huene, 1936

Genera

Rauisuchus
Fasolasuchus
Heptasuchus
Tikisaurus
?Teratosaurus
?Postosuchus

Rauisuchidae are a group of large (up to 6 meters or more) predatory Triassic archosaurs, and constitute advanced representatives of the larger group Rauisuchia. There is some disagreement over which genera should be included in the Prestosuchidae, which in Rauisuchidae, and which in the Poposauridae, and indeed whether these should even be thought of as separate families.

J. Michael Parrish's (1993) cladistic analysis of crocodylotarsan archosaurs includes Lotosaurus, Fasolasuchus, Rauisuchus, and "the Kupferzell rauisuchid" (later called Batrachotomus) in the Rauisuchidae.

However according to David Gower (2002), who described Batrachotomus, that animal actually is closer to Prestosuchus (Prestosuchidae). That leaves only Rauisuchus from the Late Ladinian or Early Carnian of Brasil, Fasolasuchus, a giant late Norian form from Argentina, and Lotosaurus, a bizarre toothless form with a Dimetrodon like sail on its back.

Apart from the Chinese Lotosaurus, this indicates a South-West Gondwana distribution of the group. However according to Long and Murry 1995, and Galton and Walker 1996, Teratosaurus is not a popsaurid as previously thought, but a Rauisuchid.

Other genera like Heptasuchus and Tikisaurus have also been placed here. It has also been stated (need reference) that Postosuchus, conventionally classifified as a Poposaurid, is actually a Rauisuchidae.

[edit] References

Galton, Peter M., and Alick D. Walker, 1996. Bromsgroveia from the Middle Triassic of England, the earliest record of a poposaurid thecodontian reptile (Archosauria: Rauisuchia). N. Jb. Geol. Palaont. Abh, 201, Number 3 : 303-325.
Long, R. A., and Murry, P A., 1995, Late Triassic (Carnian and Norian) Tetrapods from the Southwestern United States: New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, A Division of the Office of Cultural Affairs, Bulletin 4, p. 1-254.
Parrish, JM (1993), Phylogeny of the Crocodylotarsi, with reference to archosaurian and crurotarsan monophyly. J. Vert. Paleontol. 13: 287-308.
Sereno, P. C. 2005. Stem Archosauria—TaxonSearch [version 1.0, 2005 November 7]