Elosuchidae 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 neosuchia

Neosuchia

Neosuchia is an unranked clade within Mesoeucrocodylia that includes all modern extant crocodilians and their closest fossil relatives. It is defined as the most inclusive clade containing all crocodylomorphs more closely related to Crocodylus niloticus than to Notosuchus terrestris...

n crocodyliforms. It was named in 2002 to include the genera Elosuchus

Elosuchus

Elosuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodyliform that lived during the Early Cretaceous of what is now North Africa ....

and Stolokrosuchus

Stolokrosuchus

Stolokrosuchus is an extinct genus of neosuchian crocodylomorph that lived during the Early Cretaceous. Its fossils, including a skull with a long thin snout and bony knobs on the prefontals, have been found in Niger. Stolokrosuchus was described in 2000 by Hans Larsson and Boubacar Gado. The...

, both from 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...

 of Africa. E. cherifiensis, the type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 of Elosuchus, was first classified in the genus Thoracosaurus

Thoracosaurus

Thoracosaurus is an extinct genus of gavialoid crocodilian which existed during the Late Cretaceous and early Paleocene. It contains the species Thoracosaurus neocesariensis in North America and Thoracosaurus macrorhynchus in Europe. A number of species have been referred to this genus, but most...

as a close relative of gharial

Gharial

The gharial , , also called Indian gavial or gavial, is the only surviving member of the once well-represented family Gavialidae, a long-established group of crocodilians with long, slender snouts...

s. Like gharials, elosuchids have long, narrow snouts. Stolokrosuchus was once assigned to the family Peirosauridae

Peirosauridae

Peirosauridae is a Gondwanan family of mesoeucrocodylians that lived during the Cretaceous period. It was a clade of terrestrial crocodyliforms that evolved a rather dog-like form, and were terrestrial carnivores. It was phylogenetically defined in 2004 as the most recent common ancestor of...

, a group of terrestrial crocodyliforms. Both genera are now thought to have been semi-aquatic.