Crocodylinae

Taxonomy

Crocodylinae was cladistically defined by Christopher Brochu in 1999 as Crocodylus niloticus (the Nile crocodile) and all crocodylians more closely related to it than to Osteolaemus tetraspis (the Dwarf crocodile). This is a stem-based definition, and is the sister taxon to Osteolaeminae.

Crocodylinae contains the extant genus Crocodylus. It is disputed as to whether is also includes Mecistops (slender-snouted crocodiles), or the extinct genus Voay.

Phylogeny

Some morphological studies have recovered Mecistops as a basal member of Crocodylinae, more closely related to Crocodylus than to Osteolaemus and the other members of Osteolaeminae, as shown in the cladogram below.

The below cladogram is based on a 2021 study using paleogenomics that extracted DNA from the extinct Voay, recovering it as a member of Crocodylinae. Recently recognised species (M. leptorhynchus, C. halli and the third Osteolaemus species) placed according to 2023 study by Sales-Oliveira et al.

Species list

Crocodylinae contains 13-14 extant species and 6 extinct species.

• Subfamily Crocodylinae
  • Genus Crocodylus
    • Crocodylus acutus, American crocodile
    • Crocodylus halli, Hall's New Guinea crocodile
    • Crocodylus intermedius, Orinoco crocodile
    • Crocodylus johnstoni, Freshwater crocodile, or Johnstone's crocodile
    • Crocodylus mindorensis, Philippine crocodile
    • Crocodylus moreletii, Morelet's crocodile or Mexican crocodile
    • Crocodylus niloticus, Nile crocodile
    • Crocodylus novaeguineae, New Guinea crocodile
      • Crocodylus raninus, Borneo crocodile, is related to C. novaeguineae, but whether or not it is a distinct species remains unclear.
    • Crocodylus palustris, mugger, marsh or Indian crocodile
    • Crocodylus porosus, Saltwater crocodile or Estuarine crocodile
    • Crocodylus rhombifer, Cuban crocodile
    • Crocodylus siamensis, Siamese crocodile
    • Crocodylus suchus, West African crocodile, desert or sacred crocodile
    • Crocodylus anthropophagus
    • Crocodylus checchiai
    • Crocodylus falconensis
    • Crocodylus palaeindicus
    • Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni
  • Genus Voay
    • Voay robustus (formerly Crocodylus robustus)

References

References

1. (2012). "A giant crocodile from the Plio-Pleistocene of Kenya, the phylogenetic relationships of Neogene African crocodylines, and the antiquity of ''Crocodylus'' in Africa". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
2. (6 September 2021). "Phylogenetic analysis of a new morphological dataset elucidates the evolutionary history of Crocodylia and resolves the long-standing gharial problem". [[PeerJ]].
3. (2021). "A new cranium of Crocodylus anthropophagus from Olduvai Gorge, northern Tanzania". Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia (Research in Paleontology and Stratigraphy).
4. (2021-04-27). "Paleogenomics illuminates the evolutionary history of the extinct Holocene "horned" crocodile of Madagascar, Voay robustus". Communications Biology.
5. Sales-Oliveira, V.. (2023). "Cross‑species chromosome painting and repetitive DNA mapping illuminate the karyotype evolution in true crocodiles (Crocodylidae)". Chromosoma.
6. Ross, Charles A.. (1990). "''Crocodylus raninus'' S. Müller and Schlegel, a valid species of crocodile (Reptilia: Crocodylidae) from Borneo". [[Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington]].