Proterochampsia is a clade of early archosauriform reptiles from the Triassic period. It includes the Proterochampsidae and probably also the Doswelliidae. Nesbitt defines Proterochampsia as a stem-based taxon that includes Proterochampsa and all forms more closely related to it than Euparkeria, Erythrosuchus, Passer domesticus, or Crocodylus niloticus. Therefore, the inclusion of Doswelliidae in it is dependent upon whether Doswellia and Proterochampsa form a monophyletic group to the exclusion of Archosauria and other related groups.
Description
Nesbitt found that Proterochampsians share several distinguishing characteristics, or synapomorphies. A prominent ridge runs along the length of the jugal, a bone below the eye. Another ridge is present on the quadratojugal, a bone positioned toward the back of the skull behind the jugal. There is also a depression on the squamosal bone of the skull roof. The second metatarsal of the foot is wider than the other metatarsals. Proterochampsians lack a fifth digit on the foot; the fifth metatarsal is reduced to a small pointed bone. However, Nesbitt only considered Proterochampsia to include Proterochampsidae. Ezcurra, who recovered a clade formed by Proterochampsidae and Doswelliidae, defined Proterochampsia by up-facing nostrils, maxilla-to-prefrontal contact, the tooth bearing part of the upper jaw being curved downwards, neck and front back vertebrae lacking a postzygodiapophyseal lamina, tibia with straight cnemial crest, fifth metatarsal that is not hook-shaped in its inner end, well developed foot phalanges on the fifth digit but with a poorly developed first phalanx, among other traits.
Phylogeny
One of the earliest phylogenies of proterochampsians was proposed by Kischlat and Schultz. They considered Proterochampsia as a substitute name for Proterochampsidae, and recovered a monophyleticRhadinosuchidae within this clade. However, more recent studies regard Proterochampsidae as the appropriate name for this clade, and use Rhadinosuchinae instead, as it is an internal clade of the family. Dilkes and Arcucci combined data from several phylogenetic analyses of the Archosauriformes, such as Dilkes and Sues, Ezcurra et al. and Nesbitt, and added ten new characters to their matrix. The monophyly of Proterochampsia, which was restricted to proterochampsids, was supported by 12 unambiguous synapomorphies in their analysis, including the presence of dermalsculpturing on skull that consists of prominent ridges or tubercles on frontals, parietals and nasals; a contact between the maxilla and the prefrontal, separating lacrimal and nasal; a strongly convex dorsal margin of surangular and palatal teeth that are inserted into alveoli. Some of the synapomorphies recovered by Nesbitt were found to support either the node Cerritosaurus + Chanaresuchus or the node Tropidosuchus + Chanaresuchus. The phylogenetic analysis of Sookias et al. is based on an updated version of their data set and recovered the cladogram below. Trotteyn and Haro conducted a phylogenetic analysis of proterochampsians and other basal archosauriforms using only braincase characters, and found Doswellia, an unusual long-necked, heavily armored archosauriform from Virginia, to nest within Proterochampsia. A close relationship between Doswellia and proterochampsids was also found by Benton and Clark and Dilkes and Sues. Trotteyn and Haro considered Proterochampsia to include proterochampsids and Doswellia, and proterochampsids to include all proterochampsians more closely related to Proterochampsa than to Doswellia''. Ezcurra combined data several sets, including Nesbitt and Trotteyn and Haro, and recovered a highly diverse Proterochampsia, which includes a deep split between doswelliids, including forms with aquatic adaptations, and proterochampsids. Proterochampsia was found to be the sister taxon of Archosauria, whose living representatives consist of birds and crocodilians.
