C. palaeindicus was first named by Scottish paleontologist
saber-toothed cats, mastodons.[2]Richard Lydekker later named another crocodile from the Siwalik Hills which he called C. sivalensis. Although the two crocodiles are very similar, C. sivalensis was distinguished from C. palaeindicus because the margin of its skull was less convex. C. sivalensis has recently been synonymized with C. palaeindicus, as the slight differences in shape are thought to be from natural variation or from fossilization.[3] In later years, fossils were also found from Pakistan and Myanmar
.
Classification
The Mugger crocodile, a close relative and possible descendant of Crocodylus palaeindicus
Historically, C. palaeindicus was considered a direct ancestor of the Mugger crocodile C. palustris. The two species are similar in appearance, and some fossils of C. palaeindicus were at first mistaken for C. palustris.
phylogenetic analyses of crocodiles place C. palaeindicus in a basal position among members of the genus Crocodylus. Below is a cladogram modified from Brochu et al. (2010) showing the relation of C. palaeindicus with other crocodiles:[4]
Crocodylidae.[5] In 2021, Hekkala et al. were able to use paleogenomics, extracting DNA from the extinct Voay, to better establish the relationships within Crocodylidae, including the subfamilies Crocodylinae and Osteolaeminae.[6]
The below cladogram shows the results of the latest study:
