Since the early 2010s, archosaur classification schemes have stabilized on a system where Rauisuchia is rendered an evolutionary grade, or even a wastebin taxon.

[2] As a result, Rauisuchia in its traditional usage may be considered paraphyletic: a group which is defined by shared ancestry but also excludes a descendant taxon (in this case, crocodylomorphs).

Along with many other large archosaurs, the group died out in the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event (barring crocodylomorphs, which survive to the present in the form of crocodilians).

[10][2] Three families have historically been recognised: Prestosuchidae, Rauisuchidae, and Poposauridae, as well as a number of forms (e.g. those from the Olenekian of Russia) that are too primitive and/or poorly known to fit in any of these groups.

There has been considerable suggestion that the group as currently defined is paraphyletic, representing a number of related lineages independently evolving and filling the same ecological niche of medium to top terrestrial predator.

Most analyses in the past decade have found "Rauisuchia" to be a paraphyletic grouping, including all studies with a large sample size.

Group Y is diagnosed by the presence of four or more sacral vertebrae with fully fused neural arches, which is also seen in theropod dinosaurs (a case of evolutionary convergence).

[18] Below is the cladogram from Nesbitt (2007):[18] Postosuchus Rauisuchus Arizonasaurus Lotosaurus Sillosuchus Shuvosaurus Effigia In their phylogenetic study of archosaurs, Brusatte et al. (2010) found only weak support for Rauisuchia as a monophyletic grouping.

Below is the cladogram from Brusatte et al. (2010):[16] Arganasuchus Fasolasuchus Stagonosuchus Ticinosuchus Saurosuchus Batrachotomus Prestosuchus Tikisuchus Rauisuchus Postosuchus Teratosaurus Yarasuchus Qianosuchus Arizonasaurus Bromsgroveia Lotosaurus Poposaurus Sillosuchus Effigia Shuvosaurus In a more thorough test of archosaurian relationships published in 2011 by Sterling Nesbitt, "rauisuchians" were found to be paraphyletic, with Poposauroidea at the base of the clade Paracrocodylomorpha, and the rest of the "rauisuchians" forming a grade within the clade Loricata.

[20][21] The concept of "rauisuchians" as a distinct group of reptiles distantly related to crocodiles was recognized by discoveries in Brazil in the 1940s (particularly Prestosuchus and Rauisuchus) and emphasized further by the description of Ticinosuchus in the 1960s.

Most of these early fossils are fragmentary and dubious remains from Russia, but some are better-described and constrained, such as Xilousuchus, a ctenosauriscid from the Heshanggou Formation of China.

[23] The same site also preserves a large undescribed archosaur, CM 73372, which seemingly represents a transitional form between "rauisuchians" and crocodylomorphs.

[2] Indeterminate large paracrocodylomorph material from the Lower Elliot Formation of South Africa may be even younger, late Rhaetian or possibly even lowermost Jurassic.

[1] The following is a list of valid pseudosuchian genera which have been informally or formally classified as rauisuchians, as well as their modern cladistic interpretation.

This list does not include genera named for dubious and poorly-diagnosed "rauisuchian" material from Russia (Dongusia, Energosuchus, Jaikosuchus, Jushatyria, Scythosuchus, Tsylmosuchus, Vjushkovisaurus, Vytshegdosuchus) and China (Fenhosuchus, Wangisuchus), nor taxa reclassified as non-"rauisuchian" archosaurs (Ornithosuchus, Gracilisuchus, Dongusuchus, Yarasuchus).