Gobiosuchidae

Gobiosuchidae Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Crocodylomorpha
Informal group:	†Protosuchia
Family:	†Gobiosuchidae Osmólska, 1972

Gobiosuchidae is a family of Late Cretaceous crocodyliforms that lived in what is now the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

Genera

The two genera currently classified within Gobiosuchidae are Gobiosuchus and Zaraasuchus.

Synapomorphies

According to Pol & Norell (2004), gobiosuchids form a clade united by the following synapomorphies:

• Parietal without broad occipital portion
• Absence of external mandibular fenestra
• More than two parallel rows of dorsal osteoderms
• Cranial table as wide as ventral portion of skull
• Palpebrals sutured to each other and the frontal, excluding it from the orbital margin
• External surface of ascending process of jugal exposed posterolaterally
• Longitudinal ridge on lateral surface of jugal below infratemporal fenestra
• Dorsal surface of posterolateral process of squamosal ornamented with three longitudinal ridges
• Presence of a sharp ridge along ventral surface of angular
• Surangular with a longitudinal ridge on its dorsolateral surface
• Dorsal surface of osteoderms ornamented with anterolaterally and anteromedially directed ridges
• Cervical region surrounded by lateral and ventral osteoderms sutured to the dorsal elements
• Presence of appendicular osteoderms
• Closed, or incipiently close, supratemporal fenestra

Sources

• Pol, D. & Norell, M. A., (2004). "A new gobiosuchid crocodyliform taxon from the Cretaceous of Mongolia". American Museum Novitates 3458: 1-31.