Dinosaurs & Prehistory - Other prehistoric animals - Fasolasuchus - Pseudosuchians - Prehistoric life - Triassic
Which major evolutionary line did Fasolasuchus belong to?
Correct!
Fasolasuchus tenax lived in the Late Triassic in what is now Argentina and was not a dinosaur. It belonged to the pseudosuchians, i.e. to the crocodile line of archosaurs. Archosaurs include two major main lineages: the bird lineage with dinosaurs and pterosaurs, and the crocodile lineage with crocodiles and their extinct relatives. Fasolasuchus stood on this crocodile-near side. So although Fasolasuchus was not a dinosaur, it could rival later large predatory dinosaurs in size and ecological role. A study published in 2023 describes it as the largest known “rauisuchier” and estimates its maximum body length at around 10 meters. This made it one of the most powerful land-dwelling carnivores before the rise of the large theropod dinosaurs. Fossils of Fasolasuchus come from the Los Colorados Formation in Argentina. These rocks belong to the Late Triassic, a time when dinosaurs already existed, but many ecosystems were still characterized by other archosaurs. This is precisely why Fasolasuchus is a good example of the fact that “prehistoric giant predator” does not automatically mean “dinosaur”. Some of the most formidable land predators of the Triassic belonged to the crocodile lineage.
Fasolasuchus was not a dinosaur, but a large pseudosuchian archosaur from the crocodile-like evolutionary line.
