Geosaurinae is a subfamily of metriorhynchid crocodyliforms from the Middle Jurassic

Middle Jurassic

The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from 176-161 million years ago. In European lithostratigraphy, rocks of this Middle Jurassic age are called the Dogger....

 to the Early Cretaceous

Early Cretaceous

The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous...

 (Bajocian

Bajocian

In the geologic timescale, the Bajocian is an age or stage in the Middle Jurassic. It lasted from approximately 171.6 Ma to around 167.7 Ma . The Bajocian age succeeds the Aalenian age and precedes the Bathonian age....

 - Valanginian

Valanginian

In the geologic timescale, the Valanginian is an age or stage of the Early or Lower Cretaceous. It spans between 140.2 ± 3.0 Ma and 136.4 ± 2.0 Ma...

) of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

. Named by Richard Lydekker

Richard Lydekker

Richard Lydekker was an English naturalist, geologist and writer of numerous books on natural history.-Biography:...

, in 1889, it contains the metriorhynchids Suchodus

Suchodus

Suchodus is an extinct genus of marine crocodyliform from the Middle to Late Jurassic period of England and France.-Taxonomy and phylogeny:Recent phylogenetic analysis has shown that Suchodus is a distinct metriorhynchid genus.-Valid species:...

, Purranisaurus

Purranisaurus

Purranisaurus is an extinct genus of marine crocodyliform from the Middle to Late Jurassic period of Chile and Argentina. Rusconi originally regarded Purranisaurus potens to be a plesiosaur; however, Gasparini demonstrated that it was in fact a metriorhynchid crocodyliform, and that may be a...

, Neptunidraco

Neptunidraco

Neptunidraco is an extinct genus of carnivorous marine crocodyliform which lived during the middle Jurassic period in what is now northeastern Italy. It is known from a partial skeleton recovered from the nodular limestone of the Rosso Ammonitico Veronese Formation...

, Torvoneustes

Torvoneustes

Torvoneustes is a genus of extinct metriorhynchid mesoeucrocodylian. It is known from a partial skull and some postcranial remains that have been found from the Kimmeridge Clay of Wiltshire, England. The skull was first to be found, and was first assigned to the species Metriorhynchus superciliosus...

, Dakosaurus

Dakosaurus

Dakosaurus is an extinct genus within the family Metriorhynchidae that lived during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. It was large, with teeth that were serrated and compressed lateromedially . The genus was established by Friedrich August von Quenstedt in 1856 for an isolated tooth named...

and Geosaurus

Geosaurus

Geosaurus is an extinct genus of marine crocodyliform within the family Metriorhynchidae that lived during the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. Geosaurus was a carnivore that spent much, if not all, its life out at sea...

. The last three taxa form a tribe within Geosaurinae, the Geosaurini. Geosaurinae is one of two subfamilies of Metriorhynchidae, the other being Metriorhynchinae

Metriorhynchinae

Metriorhynchinae is a subfamily of metriorhynchid crocodyliforms from the late Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous of Europe, North America and South America. Named by Fitzinger, in 1843, it contains the metriorhynchids Metriorhynchus, Gracilineustes, Cricosaurus and Rhacheosaurus...

.

Phylogeny

Geosaurinae is a stem-based taxon defined in 2009 as the most inclusive clade consisting of Geosaurus giganteus, but not Metriorhynchus geoffroyii. Geosaurini was named by Lydekker in 1889, and it is a node-based taxon defined by Andrea Cau and Federico Fanti in 2011 as the least inclusive clade consisting of Geosaurus giganteus, Dakosaurus maximus and Torvoneustes carpenteri. The cladogram

Cladogram

A cladogram is a diagram used in cladistics which shows ancestral relations between organisms, to represent the evolutionary tree of life. Although traditionally such cladograms were generated largely on the basis of morphological characters, DNA and RNA sequencing data and computational...

 below follows the topology from a 2011 analysis by Young et al.