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Data from: The biogeographic history of neosuchian crocodiles and the impact of saltwater tolerance variability

Groh, Sebastian1; Upchurch, Paul1; Day, Julia J1; Barrett, Paul M2

Published Sep 14, 2023 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.59zw3r2d2

Data files

Sep 14, 2023 version files 254.60 MB

Abstract

Extant neosuchian crocodiles are represented by only 24 taxa that are confined to the tropics and subtropics. However, at other intervals during their 200 million-year evolutionary history, the clade reached considerably higher levels of species-richness, matched by more widespread distributions. Neosuchians have occupied numerous habitats and niches, ranging from dwarf riverine forms to large marine predators. Despite numerous previous studies, several unsolved questions remain with respect to their biogeographic history, including the geographic origins of major groups, e.g., Eusuchia and Neosuchia itself. We carried out the most comprehensive biogeographic analysis of Neosuchia to date, based on a multivariate K-means clustering approach followed by the application of two ancestral area estimation methods (BioGeoBEARS and Bayesian Ancestral Location Estimation) applied to two recently published phylogenies. Our results placed the origin of Neosuchia in north-western Pangaea, with subsequent radiations into Gondwana. Eusuchia probably emerged in the European archipelago during the Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous, followed by dispersal to the North American and Asian landmasses. We show that putative transoceanic dispersal events are statistically significantly less likely to happen in alligatoroids. This finding is consistent with the saltwater intolerant physiology of extant alligatoroids, bolstering inferences of such intolerance in their ancestral lineages.