reptiles (Crocodyliformes) related but outside Crocodylia (the clade containing living crocodiles, alligators and gharials). Within this group it is most closely related to the North American genus Terminonaris. Most members of Pholidosauridae had long, slender snouts and they all were aquatic, inhabiting several different environments, some forms are interpreted as marine, capable of tolerating saltwater while others, like Sarcosuchus, were freshwater forms, the most primitive members of the clade, however, were found in coastal settings, zones of mixing of freshwater and marine waters. Sarcosuchus stands out among pholidosaurids for being considered a generalist predator, different from most known members of the clade which were specialized piscivores. A 2019 study found it to be in a more derived position in Tethysuchia, being phylogenetically closer to Dyrosauridae. Simplified cladogram after Fortier et al. (2011). Discovery and naming Early findings During the course of several expeditions on the Sahara from 1946 to 1959 which were led by the French paleontologist Albert-Félix de Lapparent, several fossils of a crocodyliform of large size were unearthed in the region known as the Continental Intercalaire Formation. Some of them were found in Foggara Ben Draou, in Mali and near the town of Aoulef, Algeria (informally named as the Aoulef Crocodile) while others came from the Ain el Guettar Formation of Gara Kamboute. In the south of Tunisia, the fossils found were fragments of the skull, teeth, scutes and vertebrae. In 1957, in the region now known as the Elrhaz Formation, several isolated teeth of great size were found by H. Faure. The study of this material by French paleontologist France De Broin helped identify them as coming from a new long snouted crocodile. Later, in 1964, the research team of the French CEA discovered an almost complete skull in the region of Gadoufaoua in the Niger. The said skull was shipped to Paris for study and became the holotype of the then new genus and species Sarcosuchus imperator in 1966. Fossils from Brazil In 1977, a new species of Sarcosuchus was recognised, S. hartti, from remains found in the late 19th century in late Hauterivian pebbly conglomerates and green shales belonging to the Ilhas Group in the Recôncavo Basin of north-eastern Brazil. In 1867, American naturalist Charles Hartt found two isolated teeth and sent them to the American paleontologist O. C. Marsh who erected a new species of Crocodylus for them, C. hartti. This material, along with