drawing by Steve Kirk - Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals, ed.. Barry Cox

The Prestosuchidae were one of a number of lineages of large active terrestrial  preditors that were so successful during the Triassic period.  Unlike earlier thecodonts, which had a typically reptilian sprawling or only semi-erect limb-posture, the Prestosuchids and their cousins the Rauisuchids and Poposaurids (Postosuchids) had a fully erect gait and posture.  They had mobility like dinosaurs and mammals, rather than like reptiles [Michael J. Benton, 1984, "Rauisuchians and the success of dinosaurs"; Nature, vol 310, p. 101).  Increasingly efficent limb-posture and mobility may also indicate that these creatures were metabolically superior to their predecessors.

These were all large animals, some species reaching 6 or 7 metres in  length, the size of a very large crocodile.  The skull alone was a metre long in the biggest forms.

The Prestosuchidae have previously been included under the Rauisuchidae, but appear to be an independent lineage that falls outside a crocodylomorph - poposaurid - rauisuchid - aetosaur clade.  Their main centre of evolution seems to have been West Gondwana, although a relatively small form (Ticinosuchus) flourished in Europe during the mid-Triassic.  They seem to be more primitive than, and presumably were ancestral to, both the Rauisuchidae and the Stagonolepidae (Aetosauria)

Included genera:

Ticinosuchus ferox
Grenzbitumenzone (Anisian-Ladinian boundary)
Tessin River, near Monte San Giorgio, Canton Tessin, Switzerland
Length: 2.5 metres
Lifestyle: large terrestrial carnivore

This had a length of about 2 1/2 metres; the size of a moderately-sized crocodile, except that it was a terrestrial predator.  Fossilised footprints called Chirotherium "hand beast"  have also been found; they were probably left by an animal very like this one

Saurosuchus galilei Reig 1959
Ischigualasto Formation, San Juan Province, Argentina
Complete skull and and several postcranial remains [Bonaparte, p.668]
Length: 6 to 7 metres; Weight: 1 to 2 tonnes.
Lifestyle: Giant terrestrial carnivore

 Saurosuchus, whose remains have been found in both the lower and the upper Ischigualasto Formation, was an enormous preditor, as big as a full-grown Allosaur or Tyrannosaur.   The skull alone was a metre in length.  It was a more advanced form than Prestosuchus and Rauisuchus, with a more elongate ischuim and femur, and strong pneumatisation (air-spaces) in the vertebrae [Bonaparte, p.668], all of which would seem to indicate a more active and metabolically advanced animal.  Without doubt the "top preditor" of the day, this huge carnivore would have fed upon the large and placid Kannemeyerid Dicynodonts whose remains occur in the same formation.

- Prestosuchidae - Links -

Prestosuchidae - part of Jack Conrad's excellent Vertebrate Phylogeny site

Rauisuchia Translation and Pronunciation Guide - more than what the title indicates, this is an excellent description of every known genus of Prestosuchid, Rauisuchid, and Poposaurid thecodontia.  Includes a sound file (.au) giving the correct pronounciation of each name.  Unfortunately does not distinguish between Rauisuchidae and Prestosuchidae.  Mirror site

Ticinosuchus page (in Spanish)

references:

Palaeos Page (incorporates some of this material, plus a lot of additional material)

Kingdoms of Life > Animalia > Vertebrata > Tetrapoda > Reptilia/Sauropsida > Archosauria > Thecodontia

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