A new gracile, quadrupedal basal crocodylomorph: Galahadosuchus jonesi

According to (Bodenham et al 2026),
“Galahadosuchus was a highly gracile, cursorial terrestrial quadruped with an erect stance, including: elongate proximal carpals; long, slender, and tightly bunched metacarpals; development of a distinct, medially directed femoral head; and a classical crurotarsal ankle joint configuration.”

This incompletely known quadruped was considered such a close relative to bipedal Terrestrisuchus that the two were once considered congeneric. Bodenham et al noticed a big difference with their qudrupedal Galahadosuchus.

According to the authors,
“key differences are evident in the morphology of the dorsal vertebrae, fore- and hindlimb long bones, proximal carpals, metacarpals, and calcaneum.”

“Phylogenetic analysis under Maximum Parsimony (testing 39 taxa with 139 traits) recovers NHMUK PV R 10002 as the sister taxon to Terrestrisuchus, clustering in all cases with the contemporaneous German species Saltoposuchus connectens to form the non-crocodyliform crocodylomorph clade Saltoposuchidae. Under equal and extended implied weights, the Early Jurassic South African species Litargosuchus leptorhynchus and the Late Triassic US species Hesperosuchus agilis, respectively, are additional saltoposuchids.”

Saltoposuchus and Litargosuchus are also bipeds, but the former is close to the base of the Crocodylomorpha in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2340 taxa) while the latter is several nodes more derived than Terrestrisuchus, which was bipedal by convergence due to intervening quadrupedal taxa.

Speaking of bipedal crocs, Scleromochlus, is not listed in the text nor taxon list. This follows a long tradition of avoiding this taxon in phylogenetic analysis. That’s strange because Benton 1999 (not listed in the Bodenham et al citations) considered it basal to dinosaurs + pterosaurs, (which made if VERY important in 1999) despite its vestigial hands and lost pedal digit 5, (among other traits reported by Peters 2000).

Co-author SNF Spiekman likewise omitted pertinent citations AND pertinent taxa, like Oculudentavis and Cosesaurus, in his team’s description of the frilled Mirasaura. So taxon exclusion is an acceptable error/oversight with them and elsewhere in paleo.

Click on the above links to see the data.

Noting variations in their phylogenetic results,
the Bodenham team concluded, “This indicates that further work re-evaluating morphological characters and more comprehensively sampling taxa needs to be done to better resolve the interrelationships of this group, a subject that will be addressed in a future study.”

Compared to the LRT
the Bodenham cladogram omitted a long list of basal crocodylomorphs, basal dinosaurs, poposaurs and erpetosuchids.

Taxon exclusion continues to be the number one problem in academic paleontology.

If you’re an academic and you wonder if you’ve included all pertinent taxa, just take a quick peek at the LRT. No citation needed. Just stop omitting pertinent taxa.

PS
If you ever wondered what a ‘fissure fill locality’ looked like, there are color images in the Bodehenham et al paper that make this clear. Not what I imagined.

References
Benton MJ 1999. Scleromochlus taylori and the origin of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London, Series B 354 1423-1446. pdf
Bodenham EH et al (4 co-authors) 2026. A second species of non-crocodyliform crocodylomorph from the Late Triassic fissure deposits of southwestern UK: Implications for locomotory ecological diversity in Saltoposuchidae. The Anatomical Record DOI: 10.1002/ar.70162
Peters D 2000a. Description and Interpretation of Interphalangeal Lines in Tetrapods.  Ichnos 7:11-41.
Peters D 2000b. A Redescription of Four Prolacertiform Genera and Implications for Pterosaur Phylogenesis. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 106 (3): 293–336.
Spiekman SNF et al (12 co-authors) 2025. Triassic diapsid shows early diversification of skin apprendages in reptiles. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09167-9

Pubilicity
The ‘greyhound crocodile,’ Galahadosuchus jonesi (Bodenham et al 2026, NHMUK PV R 10002) is featured on the following YouTube video hosted by paleontologist Stephen Wroe at his Real Paleontology channel. Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98wra_4AhCg&list=TLPQMjgwMzIwMjZ3ZL9x-L7X9Q&index=2

Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2026/03/28/a-new-gracile-quadrupedal-basal-crocodylomorph-galahadosuchus-jonesi/