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Pistosauroidea
Pistosauroidea is a group of marine reptiles within the superorder Sauropterygia that first appeared in the latter part of the Early Triassic and were the ancestors of plesiosaurs. Pistosauroids are rare in Triassic marine assemblages, and are represented by only a few fossils from central Europe, the United States, and China. Recent phylogenetic analyses consider the Triassic pistosauroids to be a paraphyletic grouping, meaning that they do not form a true clade. Plesiosauria is now placed within Pistosauroidea, while the traditional pistosauroids are successively more basal, or primitive, sauropterygians. Below is a cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ... of pistosauroid relationships from Cheng ''et al.'' (2006): Below is a cladogram of pistosauroid rela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pistosaurus
''Pistosaurus'' (''pistos'' in Greek meaning 'credible' and ''sauros'' 'lizard') is an extinct genus of aquatic sauropterygian reptile closely related to plesiosaurs. Fossils have been found in France and Germany, and date to the Middle Triassic. It contains a single species, ''Pistosaurus longaevus. Pistosaurus'' is known as the oldest "subaquatic flying" reptile on earth. The skull of ''Pistosaurus'' generally resembles that of other Triassic sauropterygians. However, there are several synapomorphies that make ''Pistosaurus'' distinguished: the long, slender, snout; the possession of splint-like nasals that are excluded from the external naris; and the posterior extension of the premaxilla to the frontals. Based on synapomorphies such as the small nasals size and the presence of interpterygoid vacuity, ''Pistosaurus'' is more closely related to Plesiosauria than to ''Nothosaurus''. ''Pistosaurus'' is often mistaken with ''Nothosaurus'' and Plesiosauria. ''Nothosaurus'' belo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pistosaurus BW
''Pistosaurus'' (''pistos'' in Greek meaning 'credible' and ''sauros'' 'lizard') is an extinct genus of aquatic sauropterygian reptile closely related to plesiosaurs. Fossils have been found in France and Germany, and date to the Middle Triassic. It contains a single species, ''Pistosaurus longaevus. Pistosaurus'' is known as the oldest "subaquatic flying" reptile on earth. The skull of ''Pistosaurus'' generally resembles that of other Triassic sauropterygians. However, there are several synapomorphies that make ''Pistosaurus'' distinguished: the long, slender, snout; the possession of splint-like nasals that are excluded from the external naris; and the posterior extension of the premaxilla to the frontals. Based on synapomorphies such as the small nasals size and the presence of interpterygoid vacuity, ''Pistosaurus'' is more closely related to Plesiosauria than to ''Nothosaurus''. ''Pistosaurus'' is often mistaken with ''Nothosaurus'' and Plesiosauria. ''Nothosaurus'' belongs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pachypleurosauria
left, 220px, '' Pachypleurosaurus'' Pachypleurosauria is an extinct clade of primitive sauropterygian reptiles that vaguely resembled aquatic lizards, and were limited to the Triassic period. They were elongate animals, ranging in size from , with small heads, long necks, paddle-like limbs, and long, deep tails. The limb girdles are greatly reduced, so it is unlikely these animals could move about on land. The widely spaced peg-like teeth project at the front of the jaws, indicating that these animals fed on fish. In the species ''Prosantosaurus'', it was observed that they fed on small fishes and crustaceans which they devoured entirely and that its teeth regrew after they broke off. This was the first observation of tooth replacement in a European pachypleurosaur, the only other discovery of such an event was made in China. Classification Pachypleurosaurs were originally and are often still included within the Nothosauroidea (Carroll 1988, Benton 2004). In some more recent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nothosauria
Nothosaurs (order Nothosauroidea) were Triassic marine sauropterygian reptiles that may have lived like seals of today, catching food in water but coming ashore on rocks and beaches. They averaged about in length, with a long body and tail.F. v. Huene. 1956. Paläontologie und Phylogenie der Niederen Tetrapoden aleontology and Phylogeny of the Lower Tetrapods ''VEB Gustav Fischer Verlang, Jena'' 1-716 The feet were paddle-like, and are known to have been webbed in life, to help power the animal when swimming. The neck was quite long, and the head was elongated and flattened, and relatively small in relation to the body. The margins of the long jaws were equipped with numerous sharp outward-pointing teeth, indicating a diet of fish and squid. Taxonomy The Nothosauroidea consist of two suborders: * Pachypleurosauria, small primitive forms, and * Nothosauria (including two families Nothosauridae and Simosauridae), which evolved from pachypleurosaurs. The placement of pachypleuros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sauropterygia
Sauropterygia ("lizard flippers") is an extinct taxon of diverse, aquatic reptiles that developed from terrestrial ancestors soon after the end-Permian extinction and flourished during the Triassic before all except for the Plesiosauria became extinct at the end of that period. The plesiosaurs would continue to diversify until the end of the Mesozoic. Sauropterygians are united by a radical adaptation of their pectoral girdle, adapted to support powerful flipper strokes. Some later sauropterygians, such as the pliosaurs, developed a similar mechanism in their pelvis. Uniquely among reptiles, sauropterygians moved their tail vertically like modern cetaceans and sirenians. Origins and evolution The earliest sauropterygians appeared about 247 million years ago (Ma), at the start of the Middle Triassic: the first definite sauropterygian with exact stratigraphic datum lies within the Spathian division of the Olenekian era in South China. Early examples were small (around 60 c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. Covering an area of approximately , it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and financial center is Shanghai. Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dyna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cymatosaurus
''Cymatosaurus'' is an extinct genus of pistosauroid or nothosauriform sauropterygian. It is known to have been alive from the Early Triassic to the Middle Triassic period (latest Olenekian to Anisian stages) of Germany and they seem to originate from the Netherlands.Sander, P.M., Klein, N., Albers, P.C.H. et al. Paläontol Z (2014) 88: 55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-013-0181-5 See also * Timeline of plesiosaur research This timeline of plesiosaur research is a chronologically ordered list of important fossil discoveries, controversies of interpretation, taxonomic revisions, and cultural portrayals of plesiosaurs, an order of marine reptiles that flourished duri ... References Fossil taxa described in 1894 Early Triassic reptiles of Europe Pistosaurs Triassic sauropterygians Olenekian genus first appearances Anisian genus extinctions Middle Triassic reptiles of Europe Anisian life Sauropterygian genera {{triassic-reptile-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corosaurus
''Corosaurus'' is an extinct genus of pistosauroid known from Wyoming of the United States. The holotype measured about long, while larger specimens would have belonged to individuals measuring more than long. History of discovery ''Corosaurus'' is known from the holotype UW 5485, a partial skeleton which includes the skull. Later, the referred specimens YPM 41030-41068, FMNH PR 135, FMNH PR 1368-1369, FMNH PR 242-246 and FMNH PR 1382-1383 were described by Glenn William Storrs in 1991. All specimens were collected in Jackson Canyon, Natrona County, from the Chugwater Group of the Alcova Limestone Formation, dating to the late Olenekian stage of the late Early Triassic, about 247.4-245 million years ago. Etymology ''Corosaurus'' was first named by Ermine Cowles Case in 1936 and the type species is ''Corosaurus alcovensis''. The specific name is derived from the name of the Alcova Limestone Formation, in which the holotyp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nothosaurus BW
''Nothosaurus'' ("false lizard", from the Ancient Greek (), "illegitimate", and (), "lizard") is an extinct genus of sauropterygian reptile from the Triassic period, approximately 240–210 million years ago, with fossils being distributed from North Africa and Europe to China. It is the best known member of the nothosaur order. Description ''Nothosaurus'' was a semi-oceanic animal which probably had a lifestyle similar to that of today's seals. It was about , with long, webbed toes and possibly a fin on its tail. However, some species such as ''N. zhangi'' and ''N. giganteus'' were larger, up to . When swimming, ''Nothosaurus'' would use its tail, legs, and webbed feet to propel and steer it through the water. The skull was broad and flat, with long jaws, lined with needle teeth, it probably caught fish and other marine creatures. Trackways attributed, partly by process of elimination, to a nothosaur, that were reported from Yunnan, China in June 2014, were interpreted as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keichousaurus BW
''Keichousaurus'' (key-cho-saurus) is a genus of marine reptile in the pachypleurosaur family which went extinct at the close of the Triassic in the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. The name derives from Kweichow (now Guizhou Province) in China where the first fossil specimen was discovered in 1957. They are among the most common sauropterygian fossils recovered and are often found as nearly complete, articulated skeletons, making them popular among collectors. ''Keichousaurus'', and the pachypleurosaur family broadly, are sometimes classified within Nothosauroidea, but are otherwise listed as a separate, more primitive lineage within Sauropterygia. Description ''Keichousaurus'', like all sauropterygians, was highly adapted to the aquatic environment. Most specimens had small body, males sexually mature with snout-vent length (SVL), and in females by SVL. Mean SVL for mature males is approximately SVL, and for mature females, at most SVL. It had both long necks and lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Placodus BW
''Placodus'' (meaning 'flat tooth') was a genus of marine reptiles belonging to the order Placodontia, which swam in the shallow seas of the middle Triassic period (c. 240 million years ago). Fossils of ''Placodus'' have been found in Central Europe (Germany, France, Poland) and China. Palaeobiology ''Placodus'' had a stocky body with a long tail, and reached a total length of and body mass of . It had a short neck, and a heavy skull. They were specialized for a durophagous diet of shellfish, such as bivalves. Chisel-like incisors protruded from the anterior margin of the snout, and were probably used to pluck hard-shelled benthic prey from the substrate. The back teeth were broad and flattened, and would have helped to crush the prey. Before the animals' anatomy was known, they were regarded as fishes' teeth. Similar smaller teeth were present on the palatine bones. ''Placodus'' and its relatives were not as well-adapted to aquatic life as some later reptile groups, like t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Placodontia
Placodonts (" Tablet teeth") are an extinct order of marine reptiles that lived during the Triassic period, becoming extinct at the end of the period. They were part of Sauropterygia, the group that includes plesiosaurs. Placodonts were generally between in length, with some of the largest measuring long. The first specimen was discovered in 1830. They have been found throughout central Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and China. Palaeobiology The earliest forms, like ''Placodus'', which lived in the early to middle Triassic, resembled barrel-bodied lizards superficially similar to the marine iguana of today, but larger. In contrast to the marine iguana, which feeds on algae, the placodonts ate molluscs and so their teeth were flat and tough to crush shells. In the earliest periods, their size was probably enough to keep away the top sea predators of the time: the sharks. However, as time passed, other kinds of carnivorous reptiles began to colonize the seas, such as ich ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
