Tomistominae

Tomistominae Temporal range: Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
False gharial, Tomistoma schlegelii
Scientific classification (disputed)
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Archosauromorpha
Clade:	Archosauriformes
Order:	Crocodilia
Clade:	Longirostres
Superfamily:	Gavialoidea
Family:	Gavialidae
Subfamily:	Tomistominae Kälin, 1955
Genera
Tomistoma †Dollosuchoides? †Dollosuchus? †Ferganosuchus? †Gavialosuchus? †Gunggamarandu †Kentisuchus? †Maomingosuchus? †Maroccosuchus? †Megadontosuchus? †Paratomistoma? †Penghusuchus? †Rhamphosuchus? †Toyotamaphimeia? †Thecachampsa?

Tomistominae is a

The classification of tomistomines among Crocodylia has been in flux; while traditionally thought to be within Crocodyloidea, molecular evidence indicates that they are more closely related to true gharials as members of Gavialoidea.

Description

Tomistomines have narrow or longirostrine snouts like gharials. The living false gharial lives in fresh water and uses its long snout and sharp teeth to catch fish, although true gharials are more adapted toward

Tomistomines first appeared in the Eocene in Europe and North Africa. The oldest known tomistomine is Kentisuchus spenceri from England, although a possible tomistomine fossil from the Paleocene of Spain is even older.^[1] Other early tomistomines include Maroccosuchus zennaroi from Morocco and Dollosuchus dixoni from Belgium. These early tomistomines inhabited the Tethys Ocean, which covered much of Europe and North Africa during the Paleogene. Several early tomistomines are found in coastal marine deposits, suggesting that they lived along the shoreline or in estuaries. Extinct gavialoids are also thought to have been coastal animals. The marine lifestyles of these early forms likely allowed tomistomines to spread around the Tethys, forming a northern population in Europe and a southern in North Africa.^[1]

Later in the Eocene and

Tomistomines crossed the Atlantic Ocean and spread into the Americas in the Oligocene, Miocene, and

Tomistomines disappeared from Europe during the Oligocene but returned by the end of the epoch. They diversified and became common in the middle Miocene. One tomistomine, Tomistoma coppensi, is known from the late Miocene of Uganda. The appearance of tomistomines in central Africa is unusual because there is little evidence of late Miocene species in North Africa, an area where they must have traveled through from Europe.^[1]

Tomistomines may have traveled from Africa into Asia when

Phylogeny

Tomistominae is

crocodiles

.

Hypotheses of tomistomine phylogeny

Morphological Crocodylia   Gavialidae Alligatoridae   Crocodylidae   Crocodylinae Tomistominae

Molecular Crocodylia   Alligatoridae  Gavialoidea  Gavialis Tomistominae Crocodylidae

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