Turfanosuchus dabanenesis (Young 1973) Middle Triassic ~235 mya, ~90 cm in length was first considered a sister to Euparkeria (Young 1973), then a suchian (or crocodylomorph, Parrish 1993), then left as an enigma (Wu and Russell 2001). Here Turfanosuchus nests at the between Pseudhesperosuchus and Gracilisuchus at the base of the Crocodylomorpha and the Archosauria.

Distinct from Pseudhesperosuchus, the skull of Turfanosuchus had a larger naris, antorbital fenestra and orbit. The nasal/prefrontal ridge was expanded. The upper temporal fenestra were shorter.

The cervicals were elongated. The dorsal rib cage was more extensive. The chevrons were reduced.

The humerus was hourglass-shaped. The pubis was probably deeper. The posterior pelvis was larger and angled dorsally. The legs were relatively shorter. The calcaneum was oriented proximally. Osteoderms continued to line the back.

With such proportions, Turfanosuchus was not bipedal. With that long neck, it is tempting to think of Turfanosuchus as an ancestor to sauropods, but it is not. Instead it was another long-necked rauisuchian, like Yarasuchus and Qianosuchus.

Paleontologists who study archosauriformes like to focus on the ankles and in particular the calcaneal "heel." To most of them, if you have that bone, you can classify the entire animal. To a certain extent, they have a point. More importantly, though a large analysis, like this one, reveals patterns in the shapes of that "heel" that have gone largely unnoticed.

Most paleontologists prefer their dinosaur ancestors to not have a calcaneal "heel" at all. That's why they like pterosaurs, Lagerpeton and Scleromochlus in that position. Unfortunately, if they take one step out from those taxa, they run into phylogenetic "brick walls," taxa that don't look anything like these three.

This study includes many more specimens in order to provide many more slots in which the specimens may nest, reducing the chance of any "by default" nestings and increasing the resolution of the entire tree.

Here the calcaneal heel has phylogenetic patterns that can be traced and followed. Turfanosuchus had a calcaneal heel that turned proximally because its direct ancestors shared this character. Certain side branches lost it. Certain descendents lost it. See the entire tree here.

Turfanosuchus standing and posing tripodally. The hands are pink because the proportions cannot be verified. This may be why the neck and torso were so long.

Brusatte SL , Benton MJ , Desojo JB and Langer MC 2010. The higher-level phylogeny of Archosauria (Tetrapoda: Diapsida), Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 8:1, 3-47.

Parrish MJ 1993. Phylogeny of the Crocodylotarsi, with reference to archosaurian
and crutotarsan monophyly. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 13:287–308.

Sues H-D, Nesbitt SJ, Berman DS and Henrici AC 2011. A late-surviving basal theropod dinosaur from the latest Triassic of North America. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, published online

Wu X-C and Russell AP 2001. Redescription of Turfanosuchus dabanenesis (Archosauriformes) and new information on its phylogenetic relationships. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21(1):40-50. Online pdf.

Young CC 1973. [On a new pseudosuchian from Turfan, Sinking (Xinjiang).] Memoirs of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Academia Sinica, Series B 10:15-37.

wiki/Turfanosuchus