Data from: Character evolution and the origin of Caimaninae (Crocodylia) in the New World Tropics: new evidence from the Miocene of Panama and Venezuela

Alligators and caimans share a close relationship, supported by both
molecular and morphological characters. The divergence between alligators
and caimans has been difficult to discern in the fossil record. Two basal
taxa have recently been described from the Miocene of Panama and Venezuela
but have not yet been presented in a joint phylogeny. Continued
preparation of the type material of the Venezuelan Globidentosuchus
brachyrostris Scheyer et al., 2013 has revealed new characters for scoring
in a cladistic framework. In addition, the first lower jaw of the
Panamanian Centenariosuchus gilmorei Hastings et al., 2013 is described
herein, and additional characters were scored. In total, we conducted five
cladistic analyses to better understand the character evolution involved
in the establishment of Caimaninae. In each case, Globidentosuchus appears
as the basal-most of the caimanine lineage, followed by Culebrasuchus
mesoamericanus Hastings et al., 2013 from Panama. Stepwise character
additions of synapomorphies define progressively more derived caimanines,
but stratigraphic context creates ghost lineages extending from the
Miocene to Paleocene. The persistence of two basal taxa into the Miocene
of northern South America and Central America supports the concept of a
relict basal population in this region. This further supports
biogeographic hypotheses of dispersals in both directions between North
and South America prior to full land connection.