Master's Thesis Defense - space limited to committee members (10 seats)

"A Reassessment of Asiatosuchus grangeri Mook, 1940 and its Implications on the Evolution of Paleogene Crocodiles"

The genus Asiatosuchus has historically been used as a wastebasket taxon to refer to any basal crocodile from the Paleogene. These species represent some of the closest extinct relatives to all modern crocodiles. Here we sought to reassess the species Asiatosuchus grangeri Mook, 1940, a crocodile from the middle Eocene of China. Fossil specimens of this species were reexamined to create a detailed description from which to conduct a morphology based phylogenetic analysis. A. grangeri was found to be somewhat more derived than previously thought, and less closely related to other species that have previously been referred to the genus. The results of this analysis may also point towards an Asian lineage of early crocodile which persisted from the Late Cretaceous up to the Eocene. Further studies are required among basal crocodiles to both resolve the remaining degree of uncertainty in their phylogenetic relationships and incorporate these findings with molecular data of extant species.