†Dynamosuchus[1] †Ornithosuchus †Riojasuchus †Venaticosuchus Ornithosuchidae is an extinct family of pseudosuchian archosaurs (distant relatives of modern crocodilians) from the Triassic period.

Ornithosuchids were quadrupedal and facultatively bipedal (e.g. like chimpanzees), meaning that they had the ability to walk on two legs for short periods of time.

Ornithosuchids were geographically widespread during the Carnian and Norian stages of the Late Triassic with members known from Argentina, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.

Ornithosuchus and Riojasuchus both possess a small fenestra, or hole, between the palatine and pterygoid bones of the palate, i.e. the roof of the mouth.

Ornithosuchids known from decent postcranial remains typically had about 9 cervical (neck), 14-15 dorsal (back), three sacral (hip), and over 20 caudal (tail) vertebrae.

[6] Unlike most other early archosaurs, the pedal unguals (the distalmost bones of the feet that form claws) are laterally compressed.

Ornithosuchids are unique among crurotarsans, and all other archosaurs, in their possession of a "crocodile-reversed" ankle, in which the placement of the concavity is reversed; instead of being on the calcaneum, it is on the astragalus.

[4] Sterling Nesbitt in 2011 gave an alternative definition consisting of Ornithosuchus woodwardi and all archosaurs closer to it than to Rutiodon carolinensis, Aetosaurus ferratus, Rauisuchus tiradentes, Prestosuchus chiniquensis, Crocodylus niloticus (the Nile crocodile), or Passer domesticus (the house sparrow).