Sarcosuchus is one of the best known pholidosaurs. It is believed to have attained lengths of up to 9.5 m and weighed up to 4.3 metric tons. One genus, Suchosaurus, once thought to be a pholidosaur,[3] has since been shown to be a spinosauridtheropoddinosaur[4] (incertae sedis within Baryonychinae; possibly a junior synonym of Baryonyx[5]).
The CenomanianTerminonaris was the Pholidosaurid species that appeared to be the most common during the Late Cretaceous.[6]
Phylogeny[]
Pholidosauridae is usually considered to be most closely related to the Dyrosauridae. However, the relationship between these families is not fully understood. Pholidosauridae might be monophyletic,[2]paraphyletic[7] or even a polyphyletic[8] in relation to Dyrosauridae. For example, Fortier, Perea & Schultz (2011) found the family to be monophyletic, and include to main lineages: the Elosuchus–Meridiosaurus lineage and the Pholidosaurus lineage. The cladogram below shows their phylogenetic analysis, which is based on an expanded version of Pol and Gasparini (2009) analysis.[2]
de Andrade et al. (2011) recovered a paraphyletic traditional Pholidosauridae. In their analysis the "Elosuchus lineage" was found to be basal to the "Pholidosaurus lineage"+Dyrosauridae. They used the name Elosuchidae for the Elosuchus lineage and restricted Pholidosauridae to its type genus. The following cladogram simplified after their analysis.[7]
^Buffetaut, E. (2007). "The spinosaurid dinosaur Baryonyx (Saurischia, Theropoda) in the Early Cretaceous of Portugal." Geological Magazine, 144(6): 1021-1025.
