SYSTEMATIC REVISION OF SARCOSUCHUS HARTTI (CROCODYLIFORMES) FROM THE RECÔNCAVO BASIN (EARLY CRETACEOUS) OF BAHIA, NORTH-EASTERN BRAZIL

_Sarcosuchus hartii_ was a top predator that inhabited the fluvial and coastal areas of north-eastern Brazil during the Early Cretaceous. Several remains were recovered during the late 19th and early 20th centuries from outcrops of the Ilhas Group (Recôncavo Basin) in the limits of Salvador, state of Bahia. Comprising a succession of conglomerates, sandstones and high fossiliferous shales, the outcrops correspond to Sequence K30 of the Rift Supersequence and, therefore, they would have a Late Hauterivian to Early Barremian in age. One of the earliest discoveries was made by Mr Samuel Allport, who reported the presence of fossils in the localities of Fort Mont Serrat and Plataforma in 1860, after named as _Crocodylus hartti_ Marsh, 1869. Joseph Mawson, a nineteenth-century British railway engineer and businessman in Bahia, collected and published new specimens deposited in the 'Mawson collection' in the Natural History Museum (London). The new specimens described here are a partially preserved jaw (MN 7459-V) and two associated teeth (MN 7460-V and MN 7461-V) housed until September 2, 2018 at Museu Nacional. These fossils were collected by Mr Roberto Tinoco at the locality of Aratu and donated to the museum in the 1980s. A re-analysis of this material published at Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society showed that _S. hartii_ is a valid species. The Brazilian taxon differs from the African _Sarcosuchus imperator_ in the unique pattern of anastomosing ornamentation observed on the enamel surface. The inclusion of _S. hartii_ in a novel phylogenetic analysis recovered it inside Tethysuchoidea, a clade comprising _Meridiosaurus vallisparadisi_ (from Uruguay), _Sarcosuchus, Terminonaris_ (from Canada) Elosuchidae and Dyrosauridae. Tethysuchoidea plus North American and Asian Pholidosauridae form the clade Tethysuchia. The evolutionary origin of _Sarcosuchus_ is likely related to a cladogenesis event that resulted from the break-up of Gondwana. [*CAPES, **FAPES, ***SESu/MEC, ****CNPq and FAPERJ]