Teleosauridae

Amongst teleosauroids, teleosaurids were generally smaller and less common than machimosaurids, suggesting the two families occupied different niches, similar to modern species of crocodilians. However, teleosaurids were more diverse than machimosaurids, with generalist coastal predators (Mystriosaurus), long-snouted marine piscivores (Bathysuchus), and potentially even long-snouted, semi-terrestrial predators (Teleosaurus). Additionally, teleosaurids occupied a wider range of habitats than machimosaurids, from semi-marine coasts and estuaries, the open-ocean, freshwater, and potentially even semi-terrestrial environments.

Classification

Teleosauridae is phylogenetically defined in the PhyloCode by Mark T. Young and colleagues as "the largest clade within Teleosauroidea containing Teleosaurus cadomensis but not Machimosaurus hugii. Teleosauridae is split into two subfamilies, the Teleosaurinae and the Aeolodontini, the former defined in the PhyloCode as "the largest clade within Teleosauroidea containing Teleosaurus cadomensis, but not Aeolodon priscus and the latter defined in the PhyloCode as "the largest clade within Teleosauroidea containing Aeolodon pricus, but not Steneosaurus megistorhynchus (the genus Seldsienean) and Teleosaurus cadomensis.

In 2024, Mark Young and colleagues recovered the genus Seldsienean as a teleosaurid and as the sister taxon to the tribe Aeolodontini. They suggested that this clade should be one of the main subfamilies of Teleosauridae, although they left this clade unnamed.