Notochampsa Temporal range: Pliensbachian [1]
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Suborder: | Notochampsoidea
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Family: | Notochampsidae
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Genus: | Notochampsa |
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Notochampsa is an extinct genus of protosuchian crocodyliform.[2] Fossils have been found from the lower Clarens Formation of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa, dating back to the Pliensbachian stage of the Early Jurassic.[3][4][5] Notochampsa comes from a period of relative fossil scarcity, and is the youngest known occurrence of a crocodylomorph (and vertebrate body fossil) from the Karoo Basin of South Africa.[1]
The genus was named in a paper published in 1904 by Robert Broom.[6] The type species was named N. istedana, and a second species, named N. longipes, was also described. Later in 1924, N. longipes was given its own genus, Erythrochampsa.[7] In that paper, Sidney Haughton created the family Notochampsidae for Notochampsa. Notochampsa was later used to include other genera of protosuchians such as Dyoplax, Pedeticosaurus, Platyognathus, and Protosuchus,[8] and later Microchampsa and Orthosuchus.[9] Notochampsa had also once been assigned to the suborder Sphenosuchia.[10] A revision in 2021 found it valid taxon, and phylogenetic analysis recovered it as sister to Orthosuchus, in a monophyletic Notochampsidae.[1]