Bretesuchidae is an extinct family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 of sebecosuchia

Sebecosuchia

Sebecosuchia is an extinct group of mesoeucrocodylian crocodyliforms that includes the families Sebecidae and Baurusuchidae. The group first appeared in the Late Cretaceous with the baurusuchids and went extinct in the Miocene with the last sebecids. Fossils have been found primarily from South...

n mesoeucrocodylia

Mesoeucrocodylia

Mesoeucrocodylia is the name of the clade that includes Eusuchia and the paraphyletic group Mesosuchia. The group appeared during the Early Jurassic, and continues to the present day....

ns from the Paleocene

Paleocene

The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the "early recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from about . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era...

 of 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...

. It includes the genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 Bretesuchus

Bretesuchus

Bretesuchus is an extinct genus of sebecosuchian mesoeucrocodylian within the family Bretesuchidae. Fossils have been found from the Maíz Gordo Formation of northwestern Argentina and date back to the late Paleocene...

and Zulmasuchus

Zulmasuchus

Zulmasuchus is an extinct genus of bretesuchid sebecosuchian mesoeucrocodylian. Its fossils have been found in Paleocene-age rocks of the Santa Lucia Formation in Bolivia. Zulmasuchus was named in 2007 by Alfredo Paolillo and Omar Linares for fossils originally described by Buffetaut and...

. Bretesuchus, the type genus

Type genus

In biological classification, a type genus is a representative genus, as with regard to a biological family. The term and concept is used much more often and much more formally in zoology than it is in botany, and the definition is dependent on the nomenclatural Code that applies:* In zoological...

, was named in 1993 from the Late Paleocene Maíz Gordo Formation in northwestern Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. The type species of Zulmasuchus, Z. querejazus, was named in 1991 as a species of Sebecus

Sebecus

Sebecus is an extinct genus of sebecid crocodylomorph from the Eocene of South America. Fossils have been found in Patagonia. Like other sebecosuchians, it was entirely terrestrial and carnivorous. The genus is currently represented by a single species, the type S. icaeorhinus...

, a genus belonging to the closely related family Sebecidae

Sebecidae

Sebecidae is an extinct family of prehistoric crocodylomorphs. They lived mostly in Argentina.This group included many medium and large - sized genera, from Sebecus to a giant indeterminate unnamed species from the Miocene.-Phylogeny:...

. It was given its own genus and reclassified as a bretesuchid in 2007. Zulmasuchus is known from the Early Paleocene Santa Lucia Formation

Santa Lucia Formation

The Santa Lucia Formation is a Mesozoic geologic formation. Fossil ornithopod tracks have been reported from the formation.-See also:* List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations** List of stratigraphic units with ornithischian tracks*** Ornithopod tracks...

 in Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

.