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 sub..., For methodological details, see Groh, S.S., Upchurch, P., Barrett, P.M. and Day, J.J., 2023. The biogeographic history of neosuchian crocodiles and the impact of saltwater tolerant/intolerant physiologies [under review]. , , GENERAL INFORMATION
1\. Title of Dataset: Groh\_2023\_croc\_biogeo
2\. Author information:
A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
Name: Sebastian S. Groh
Institution: Dpt. of Earth Sciences, University College London
Address: Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Email: [e-mail]
B. Co-investigators Contact Information
Name: Paul Upchurch
Institution: Dpt. of Earth Sciences, University College London
Address: Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Email: [e-mail]
Name: Paul M. Barrett
Institution: Dpt. of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum
Address: Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK
Email: [e-mail]
Name: Julia J. Day
Institution: Dpt. of Genetics, Environment and Evolution, University College London
Address: Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Email: [e-mail]
3\. Dates of data collection: 2015\-04\-01 to 2022\-08\-31\,
collected in person in museum collections and from online sources
(see Groh et al. ...