Once a much more globally widespread crocodylian clade, Tomistominae is today represented by just one species, Tomistoma schlegelii (the false gharial), restricted to south-east Asia. Although tomistomine fossil occurrences are recognized from the early Eocene (∼55 Ma) onwards, their remains are often incomplete, making appropriate taxonomic classification within the group problematic. This is especially pertinent to several taxa from the Miocene of Europe, which were historically erected from fragmentary remains. Here we re-examine and describe four approximately contemporaneous taxa from Malta and Italy to determine their taxonomy and phylogenetic affinities: Melitosaurus champsoides, Tomistoma calaritanum, Tomistoma gaudense and Tomistoma lyceense. We place them into a phylogenetic analysis for the first time, comprising 70 taxa scored for 244 characters, several of which are revised or novel, and apply a number of character weighting strategies. Whereas ‘Tomistoma lyceense’ is deemed to be an indeterminate tomistomine, a unique combination of features confirms Melitosaurus champsoides, Tomistoma calaritanum and Tomistoma gaudense as three distinct species. These three taxa are recovered as derived tomistomines, with characters such as a posterior maxillary process between the lacrimal and nasal, large supratemporal fenestrae that are wider than long, and the posteromedial alignment of the last three premaxillary teeth, suggesting a close relationship with the approximately contemporaneous European taxa, Tomistoma lusitanica and Gavialosuchus eggenburgensis. It is unlikely that any of these species belong to Tomistoma, with the possibility that they can all be classified under Melitosaurus and Gavialosuchus. However, we retain them in open nomenclature pending reassessment of the remaining European Miocene tomistomines. Our taxonomic and phylogenetic revision helps to elucidate past tomistomine diversity in the Miocene of the Mediterranean region, prior to the group’s extirpation, and is an important first step in resolving the complicated history of European tomistomine systematics.

Tomistominae曾经是一个在全球范围内分布广泛的鳄鱼分支，如今仅由一个物种（Tomistoma schlegelii（假鳞茎））代表，仅限于东南亚。尽管从始新世（约55 Ma）开始就认识到了Tomistomine化石的发生，但它们的遗骸常常不完整，这使得该组中的适当分类学分类成为问题。这尤其与欧洲中新世的几种分类单元有关，这些分类单元历史上是从零碎的遗骸中竖立的。在这里，我们重新检查并描述来自马耳他和意大利的大约四个同时期的分类单元，以确定它们的分类学和系统发育亲和力：羽扇豆（Melitosaurus champsoides），Tomistoma calaritanum，Tomistoma gaudense和番茄。我们首次将它们放入系统发育分析中，包括为244个字符评分的70个分类单元，其中一些经过修订或新颖，并应用了多种字符加权策略。尽管“ Tomistoma lyceense ”被认为是不确定的tomistomine，但独特的功能组合证实了Melitosaurus champsoides，Tomistoma calaritanum和Tomistoma gaudense作为三个不同的物种。这三个分类单元被作为衍生的tomistomines回收，其特征包括泪和鼻之间的上颌后突，宽于长的大的肱骨上前窗幕以及最后三个上颌前牙的后内侧对齐，这表明与大约欧洲同期的生物分类，lustanica Tomistoma和eggenburg Gavialosuchus。这些物种都不大可能属于Tomistoma，有可能将它们全部归类为Melitosaurus和Gavialosuchus。但是，我们将其保留为公开术语，以待对剩余的欧洲中新世豆蔻毒素进行重新评估。我们对生物分类学和系统发生学的修订有助于阐明该地区灭绝之前地中海地区中新世以前的tomistomine多样性，并且是解决欧洲tomistomine系统复杂历史的重要第一步。