Pissarrachampsinae is a subfamily of baurusuchid crocodyliforms from the Late Cretaceous

Late Cretaceous

The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...

 of Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 and 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...

. It was named in 2011 with the description of Pissarrachampsa sera and includes P. sera from Brazil and the related Wargosuchus australis from Argentina. Pissarrachampsinae is one of two subfamilies of Baurusuchidae, the other being Baurusuchinae.

Pissarrachampsines are distinguished from baurusuchines mainly by the shapes of bones on the tops of their skulls. The prefrontal bone

Prefrontal bone

The prefrontal bone is a bone separating the lacrimal and frontal bones in many tetrapod skulls. It first evolved in the sarcopterygian clade Rhipidistia, which includes lungfish and the Tetrapodomorpha. The prefrontal is found in most modern and extinct lungfish, amphibians and reptiles...

s touch each other at only a small point on the midline of the skull. The frontal bone

Frontal bone

The frontal bone is a bone in the human skull that resembles a cockleshell in form, and consists of two portions:* a vertical portion, the squama frontalis, corresponding with the region of the forehead....

, which is positioned directly behind the prefrontals, bears a groove that runs along its midline. Pissarrachampsines also have a pitted depression at the tip of the snout called the circumnarial fossa. The nostril openings are found within this fossa.

Phylogenetically

Phylogenetics

In biology, phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relatedness among groups of organisms , which is discovered through molecular sequencing data and morphological data matrices...

, Pissarrachampsinae is a stem-based taxon. When it was named, Pissarrachampsinae was defined as Pissarrachampsa sera and all crocodyliforms more closely related to it than to Stratiotosuchus maxhechti

Stratiotosuchus

Stratiotosuchus is an extinct genus of baurusuchid mesoeucrocodylian which existed in the Adamantina Formation, Brazil during the late Cretaceous period . It was first named by Campos, D.A., Suarez, J.M., Riff, D. and Kellner, A.W.A. in 2001 and the type species is Stratiotosuchus maxhechti...

, Baurusuchus pachecoi

Baurusuchus

Baurusuchus is an extinct genus of baurusuchid mesoeucrocodylian from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. It was a terrestrial predator and scavenger, about 3.5 to 4 meters long. Baurusuchus lived during the Turonian to Santonian stages of the Late Cretaceous Period, in Adamantina Formation, Brazil...

, Notosuchus terrestris, Mariliasuchus amarali

Mariliasuchus

Mariliasuchus is an extinct genus of Late Cretaceous notosuchian mesoeucrocodylian found near Marilia, Brazil. It was described in 1999 by Brazilian palaeontologists Ismar de Souza Carvalho and Reinaldo J. Bertini....

, Armadillosuchus arrudai

Armadillosuchus

Armadillosuchus is an extinct genus of sphagesaurid crocodylomorph. It was described in February 2009 from the Late Cretaceous Bauru Basin of Brazil. Sphagesaurids share a number of mammal-like features in their teeth and jaws, although they are unrelated to mammals...

, Araripesuchus gomesi

Araripesuchus

Araripesuchus is a genus of extinct crocodyliform whose species existed during the Cretaceous period of the late Mesozoic era some 125 to 65 million years ago. They are generally considered to be notosuchians , characterized by their varied teeth types and distinct skull elements...

, Sebecus icaeorhinus

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...

, Bretesuchus bonapartei

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...

, Peirosaurus tormini

Peirosaurus

Peirosaurus is an extinct genus of peirosaurid crocodylomorph. It is the type genus of the family Peirosauridae. Fossils of the type species P. tormini, first described in 1955, have been found from the Marília Formation in Uberaba, Brazil and date back to the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late...

, and Crocodylus niloticus.

The subfamily Pissarrachampsinae may have lasted up to 20 million years. Wargosuchus is known from the Bajo de la Carpa Formation

Bajo de la Carpa Formation

The Bajo de la Carpa Formation is a geologic formation that outcrops in Patagonia, in the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, Argentina. It is the first of two formations belonging to the Río Colorado Subgroup within the Neuquén Group...

, which is Santonian

Santonian

The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 85.8 ± 0.7 mya and 83.5 ± 0.7 mya...

 in age, while Pissarrachampsa is known from the Campanian

Campanian

The Campanian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch . The Campanian spans the time from 83.5 ± 0.7 Ma to 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma ...

 to Maastrichtian

Maastrichtian

The Maastrichtian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the latest age or upper stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series, the Cretaceous period or system, and of the Mesozoic era or erathem. It spanned from 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma to 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma...

 Vale do Rio do Peixe Formation. The age of the Vale do Rio do Peixe Formation may be even older, however, making the span of the family shorter.