Notochampsa
Introduction '''''Notochampsa''''' is an extinct genus of protosuchian crocodyliform. Fossils have been found from the lower Clarens Formation of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa, dating back to the Pliensbachian stage of the Early Jurassic. ''Notochampsa'' comes from a period of relative fossil scarcity, and is the youngest known occurrence of a crocodylomorph (and vertebrate body fossil) from the Karoo Basin of South Africa.
Taxonomy The genus was named in a paper published in 1904 by Robert Broom. The type species was named ''N. istedana'', and a second species, named ''N. longipes'', was also described. Later in 1924, ''N. longipes'' was given its own genus, ''Erythrochampsa''. In that paper, Sidney Haughton created the family Notochampsidae for ''Notochampsa''. Notochampsa was later used to include other genera of protosuchians such as ''Dyoplax'', ''Pedeticosaurus'', ''Platyognathus'', and ''Protosuchus'', and later ''Microchampsa'' and ''Orthosuchus''. ''Notochampsa'' had also once been assigned to the suborder Sphenosuchia. A revision in 2021 found it valid taxon, and  phylogenetic analysis recovered it as sister to ''Orthosuchus'', in a monophyletic Notochampsidae.
References
External links * ''Notochampsa'' in the Paleobiology Database