Melitosaurus
| Melitosaurus Temporal range: Miocene,
| |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Archosauria |
| Order: | Crocodilia |
| Family: | Gavialidae |
| Subfamily: | Tomistominae |
| Genus: | † Owen, 1850 |
| Species | |
| |
Melitosaurus is an extinct genus of gavialid crocodylian discovered in Gozo, Malta in Early Miocene Aquitanian stage marine limestone rock in 1850.[1] It is related to the extant (living) False gharial and a member of the same subfamily Tomistominae, as shown in the cladogram below:[2]
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
- ^ "Melitosaurus champsoides". Fossilworks. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ Iijima M, Qiao Y, Lin W, Peng Y, Yoneda M, Liu J (2022). "An intermediate crocodylian linking two extant gharials from the Bronze Age of China and its human-induced extinction". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 289 (1970) 20220085. doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.0085. PMC 8905159. PMID 35259993.