Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40269118›Full record

ArticleCommunications biology2025

Expanded phylogeny elucidates Deinosuchus relationships, crocodylian osmoregulation and body-size evolution.

Jules D Walter, Tobias Massonne, Ana Laura S Paiva, Jeremy E Martin, Massimo Delfino, Márton Rabi

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Communications biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Jules D WalterDipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, I-10125, Torino, Italy. julesdenis.walter@unito.it.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8017-1931
Tobias MassonneDepartment of Geosciences, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Hölderlinstraße 12, D-72076, Tübingen, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6782-5280
Ana Laura S PaivaLaboratório de Paleontologia, Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6192-4560
Jeremy E MartinUniversité de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon, CNRS, UMR 5276 Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon: Terre, Planètes, Environnement, F-69622, 2 rue Dubois, Lyon, Villeurbanne, France.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9159-645X
Massimo DelfinoDipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, I-10125, Torino, Italy.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7836-7265
Márton RabiDepartment of Geosciences, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Hölderlinstraße 12, D-72076, Tübingen, Germany. marton.rabi@uni-tuebingen.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0005-8929-3106

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) 417629144Volkswagen Foundation (VolkswagenStiftung) Az. 90 978
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Transmarine distribution and gigantism in the Late Cretaceous North American crocodyliform Deinosuchus has been difficult to reconcile with consistently inferred phylogenetic relationships to alligatorids, an otherwise freshwater and smaller-bodied group. We present an expanded phylogeny with increased spatiotemporally coherence that reinterprets species of Deinosuchus as stem-group crocodylians together with further putative alligatoroids, Leidyosuchus canadensis and the European Diplocynodon spp. (closely related to North American Borealosuchus). The novel topology elucidates the evolution of osmoregulation in Crocodylia and its close relatives by inferring plesiomorphic saltwater tolerance for Deinosuchus and the crown-group as well as secondary loss already in stem-group alligatorids. Divergence of Alligatoroidea coincided with extreme mid-Cretaceous sea level highs and the distribution of Deinosuchus across the Western Interior Seaway can be best explained by marine dispersal. Phylogenetic body-length analysis using a head-width proxy reveals phyletic dwarfism early in alligatoroid evolution and a reasonable total length estimate for the most complete specimen of Deinosuchus riograndensis. We find that gigantism in crocodyliforms is correlated with high-productive extensive aquatic ecosystems in the present and the past.

Indexed as

Alligators and CrocodilesBiological EvolutionBody SizeOsmoregulationPhylogenyAnimalsFossils

Identifiers

PMID40269118
PMCPMC12018936

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.