Figure 25. Comparative plate of thalattosuchian distal tails. A, the machimosaurid teleosauroid Macrospondylus bollensis, referred specimen SMNS 51584; B, the early diverging metriorhynchoid Pelagosaurus typus, referred specimen MTM M62 2516; C, the metriorhynchid Thalattosuchus superciliosus, referred specimen GPIT-PV-31590; D, the metriorhynchid Cricosaurus bambergensis, holotype NKMB-P-Watt14/274. All scale bars equal 10 cm. Highlighting the shift in distal tail morphology as thalattosuchians became increasingly aquatic, culminating in the hypocercal tail of metriorhynchids. Note the variation in tail fluke morphology within Metriorhynchidae.

Published as part of Young, Mark T., Wilberg, Eric W., Johnson, Michela M., Herrera, Yanina, Brandalise, Marco de Andrade, Brignon, Arnaud, Sachs, Sven, Abel, Pascal, Foffa, Davide, Fernández, Marta S., Vignaud, Patrick, Cowgill, Thomas & Brusatte, Stephen L., 2024, The history, systematics, and nomenclature of Thalattosuchia (Archosauria: Crocodylomorpha), pp. 547-617 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 200 (2) on page 603, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad165, http://zenodo.org/record/11241243