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Concept
Tomistominae
Summary
Tomistominae is a subfamily of crocodylians that includes one living species, the false gharial. Many more extinct species are known, extending the range of the subfamily back to the Eocene epoch. In contrast to the false gharial, which is a freshwater species that lives only in southeast Asia, extinct tomistomines had a global distribution and lived in estuaries and along coastlines.
The classification of tomistomines among Crocodylia has been in flux; while traditionally thought to be within Crocodyloidea, molecular evidence indicates that they are more closely related to true gharials as members of Gavialoidea.
Tomistomines have narrow or longirostrine snouts like gharials. The living false gharial lives in fresh water and uses its long snout and sharp teeth to catch fish, although true gharials are more adapted toward piscivory, or fish-eating. Despite the similarity with gharials, the shapes of bones in tomistomine skulls link them with crocodiles. For example, both tomistomines and crocodiles have thin postorbital bars behind the eye sockets and a large socket for the fifth maxillary tooth. The splenial bone of the lower jaw is long and slender, forming a distinctive "V" shape not seen in gharials.
Tomistomines first appeared in the Eocene in Europe and North Africa. The oldest known tomistomine is Kentisuchus spenceri from England, although a possible tomistomine fossil from the Paleocene of Spain is even older. Other early tomistomines include Maroccosuchus zennaroi from Morocco and Dollosuchus dixoni from Belgium. These early tomistomines inhabited the Tethys Ocean, which covered much of Europe and North Africa during the Paleogene. Several early tomistomines are found in coastal marine deposits, suggesting that they lived along the shoreline or in estuaries. Extinct gavialoids are also thought to have been coastal animals. The marine lifestyles of these early forms likely allowed tomistomines to spread around the Tethys, forming a northern population in Europe and a southern in North Africa.
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