Gavialidae is a family of large semiaquatic crocodilians with elongated, narrow snouts. Gavialidae consists of two living species, the gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) and the false gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii), both occurring in Asia. Many extinct members are known from a broader range, including the recently extinct Hanyusuchus. Gavialids are generally regarded as lacking the jaw strength to capture the large mammalian prey favoured by crocodiles and alligators of similar size so their thin snout is best used to catch fish, however the false gharial has been found to have a generalist diet with mature adults preying upon larger vertebrates, such as ungulates.
Taxonomy
The family Gavialidae was proposed by Arthur Adams in 1854 for reptiles with a very long and slender muzzle, webbed feet and nearly equal teeth. It is currently recognized as a crown group, meaning that it only includes the last common ancestor of all extant (living) gavialids (the gharial and false gharial) and their descendants (living or extinct).
Traditionally, crocodiles and alligators were considered more closely related and grouped together in the clade Brevirostres, to the exclusion of the gharials. This classification was based on morphological studies primarily focused on analyzing skeletal traits of living and extinct fossil species. However, recent molecular studies using DNA sequencing have rejected Brevirostres upon finding the crocodiles and gavialids to be more closely related than the alligators. The new clade Longirostres was named by Harshman et al. in 2003.
Species list
Family Gavialidae
- Subfamily Tomistominae
- Genus Gavialosuchus?
- Genus Maomingosuchus?
- Genus Melitosaurus
- Genus Paratomistoma?
- Genus Thecachampsa?
- Genus Tomistoma
- Tomistoma schlegelii, false gharial or Malayan gharial
- Tomistoma lusitanicum
- Subfamily Gavialinae
- Genus Aktiogavialis
- Genus Argochampsa?
- Genus Dadagavialis
- Genus Eogavialis?
- Genus Eosuchus?
- Genus Eothoracosaurus?
- Genus Gavialis
- Gavialis gangeticus, gharial
- Gavialis bengawanicus
- Genus Gavialosuchus?
- Genus Gryposuchus? (may by paraphyletic, along with Gryposuchinae)