pholidosaurid

Pholidosaurids were a group of extinct long‑snouted crocodyliforms that lived from the late Jurassic to the late Cretaceous (roughly 160 to 66 million years ago). They are placed in the broader clade Eusuchia, within the order Crocodylia, but are not direct ancestors of living crocodiles. The family is known for its highly specialized cranial morphology, characterized by an elongated, narrow rostrum, a reduced number of teeth, and a relatively high number of vertebrae in the neck, adaptations that suggest a primarily piscivorous diet.

Fossils of pholidosaurids have been found across multiple continents, including Europe, North America, Africa, and the Middle East, indicating a widespread distribution in coastal and estuarine environments. The best‑known genera include Pholidosaurus, from which the family takes its name, as well as Hemiphaenodon, Paralligator, and Schafisaurus. Stratigraphic evidence places the earliest members in the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic, while the last appearances are documented in the Maastrichtian deposits of North America and Europe.

Morphological studies have noted that pholidosaurids share several features with the modern gharial, such as the elongated snout and the presence of a large external nares, but they differ in skeletal details and scale arrangements. Phylogenetic analyses have placed them as a distinct lineage within Eusuchian crocodyliforms, distinct from the lineages that gave rise to modern alligatorids, crocodilids, and gavialids. Their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous coincides with the major faunal turnovers that affected many marine and terrestrial vertebrate groups.