Kheper Home | Kheper Palaeo Home | Topics Index | New or updated | Search


link to palaeos com Kingdoms of Life > Wikipedia link Animalia > link to palaeos com Vertebrata > link to palaeos com Tetrapoda > Wikipedia link Reptilia/link to palaeos com Sauropsida > link to palaeos com Archosauria > Thecodontia



Author's note: these pages were written some years ago. I am not planning to update them. For a more current coverage, see the link to palaeos com Palaeos website (to which many links on these pages point to anyway. More info here


Order Thecodontia

Suborder Pseudosuchia

Family Rauisuchidae

Fasolasuchus

Fasolasuchus
, drawing by M.Alan Kazlev

The Rauisuchidae were one of a number of large predatory thecodonts that lived an active terrestrial lifestyle, probably more like theropod dinosaurs than standard reptiles.

These were all large animals, and in some cases huge.  The last known genus, Fasolasuchus, was as large as an allosaur or tyrannosaur, and preyed upon contemporary Melanorosauriud dinosaurs.  So efficent were the Rauisuchids in their office of top preditor that no large (around 6 metres) dinosaurian preditors were able to evolve until the Rauisuchids had become extinct, probably as a result of environmental factors or an asteroid ipact at the close of the Triassic.


Included genera:

Fenhosuchus
Ctenosauriscus?
Lotosaurus
Rauisuchus
Shuvosaurus
"Kupferzell rauisuchid"
Fasolasuchus

links - Rauisuchidae - Links -
links

Dinosaur Mail List archive page Re: Postosuchus/Rauisuchus - Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.

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
printed reference Michael J. Benton, 1984, "Rauisuchians and the success of dinosaurs"; Nature, vol 310, p. 101
printed reference Bernard Krebs, "Pseudosuchia", in Handbuch der Palaoherpetologie - Thecodontia, pp.40-98




link to palaeos com Palaeos Page (incorporates some of this material, plus a lot of additional material)




Kheper index page
Palaeo index page
Thecodont main page

link to palaeos com Kingdoms of Life > Wikipedia link Animalia > link to palaeos com Vertebrata > link to palaeos com Tetrapoda > Wikipedia link Reptilia/link to palaeos com Sauropsida > link to palaeos com Archosauria > Thecodontia


Kheper Home | Kheper Palaeo Home | Topics Index | New or updated | Search


Creative Commons License
Unless otherwise attributed or quoted, all text is licensed under
the Creative Commons License 1.0 and a 2.0. This licence does not cover quoted material, and images, which are copyright their respective owners.

images not loading? | error messages? | broken links? | suggestions? | criticism?
contact me
page by M.Alan Kazlev
page uploaded 4 June 1998. Reposted and last modified 30 August 2005, links updated 16 January 2010