Data from: The biogeographic history of neosuchian crocodiles and the impact of saltwater tolerance variability

Extant neosuchian crocodiles are represented by only 24 taxa that are
confined to the tropics and subtropics. However, at other intervals during
their 200 million-year evolutionary history, the clade reached
considerably higher levels of species-richness, matched by more widespread
distributions. Neosuchians have occupied numerous habitats and niches,
ranging from dwarf riverine forms to large marine predators. Despite
numerous previous studies, several unsolved questions remain with respect
to their biogeographic history, including the geographic origins of major
groups, e.g., Eusuchia and Neosuchia itself. We carried out the most
comprehensive biogeographic analysis of Neosuchia to date, based on a
multivariate K-means clustering approach followed by the application of
two ancestral area estimation methods (BioGeoBEARS and Bayesian Ancestral
Location Estimation) applied to two recently published phylogenies. Our
results placed the origin of Neosuchia in north-western Pangaea, with
subsequent radiations into Gondwana. Eusuchia probably emerged in the
European archipelago during the Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous, followed
by dispersal to the North American and Asian landmasses. We show that
putative transoceanic dispersal events are statistically significantly
less likely to happen in alligatoroids. This finding is consistent with
the saltwater intolerant physiology of extant alligatoroids, bolstering
inferences of such intolerance in their ancestral lineages.