Expanded phylogeny elucidates Deinosuchus relationships, crocodylian osmoregulation and body-size evolution

Transmarine distribution and gigantism in the Late Cretaceous North American crocodyliform Deinosuchus has been difficult to reconcile with consistently inferred phylogenetic relationships to alligatorids, an otherwise freshwater and smaller-bodied group. We present an expanded phylogeny with increased spatiotemporally coherence that reinterprets species of Deinosuchus as stem-group crocodylians together with further putative alligatoroids, Leidyosuchus canadensis and the European Diplocynodon spp. (closely related to North American Borealosuchus). The novel topology elucidates the evolution of osmoregulation in Crocodylia and its close relatives by inferring plesiomorphic saltwater tolerance for Deinosuchus and the crown-group as well as secondary loss already in stem-group alligatorids. Divergence of Alligatoroidea coincided with extreme mid-Cretaceous sea level highs and the distribution of Deinosuchus across the Western Interior Seaway can be best explained by marine dispersal. Phylogenetic body-length analysis using a head-width proxy reveals phyletic dwarfism early in alligatoroid evolution and a reasonable total length estimate for the most complete specimen of Deinosuchus riograndensis. We find that gigantism in crocodyliforms is correlated with high-productive extensive aquatic ecosystems in the present and the past.