''Baptanodon'' is an

ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurs (Ancient Greek for "fish lizard" – and ) are large extinct marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers' – a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, altho ...

of the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

period (160-156 million years ago), named for its supposed lack of teeth (although teeth of this genus have since been discovered). It had a graceful long dolphin-shaped body, and its jaws were well adapted for catching squid. Major fossil finds of this genus have been recorded in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. The type species, ''Sauranodon natans'', was originally included under ''Sauranodon'' in 1879,O. C. Marsh. 1879. A new order of extinct reptiles (Sauranodonta), from the Jurassic Formation of the Rocky Mountains. ''The American Journal of Science and Arts, series 3'' but this name was preoccupied.

Discovery and species

''Baptanodon'' is a replacement name for ''Sauranodon'' applied to ichthyosaur material in 1879 and was moved to its own genus ''Baptanodon'' in 1880 when ''Sauranodon'' was found to be preoccupied. ''Baptanodon'' was considered a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

of ''

Ophthalmosaurus ''Ophthalmosaurus'' (meaning "eye lizard" in Greek) is an ichthyosaur of the Jurassic period (165–150 million years ago). Possible remains from the Cretaceous, around 145 million years ago, are also known. It was a relatively medium-sized ichth ...

'' by Maisch & Matzke (2000).Maisch MW, Matzke AT. 2000. The Ichthyosauria. ''Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie)'' 298: 1-159. However, cladistic analyses published in the 2010s indicate that ''Baptanodon'' is not congeneric with ''Ophthalmosaurus icenicus''.

Classification

The cladogram below follows Fischer ''et al.'' 2012.

Palaeobiology

Fossils of ''Baptanodon'' have been found in the Oxfordian-age

Sundance Formation The Sundance Formation is a western North American sequence of Middle Jurassic to Upper Jurassic age Dating from the Bathonian to the Oxfordian, around 168-157 Ma, It is up to 100 metres thick and consists of marine shale, sandy shale, sandst ...

of Wyoming, which also has yielded fossils of the cryptoclidids ''

Tatenectes ''Tatenectes'' is a genus of cryptoclidid plesiosaur known from the Upper Jurassic of Wyoming. Its remains were recovered from the Redwater Shale Member of the Sundance Formation, and initially described as a new species of '' Cimoliosaurus ...

'' and ''

Pantosaurus ''Pantosaurus'' ("all lizard") is an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Late Jurassic ( Oxfordian) of what is now Wyoming. It lived in what used to be the Sundance Sea. It was originally named ''Parasaurus'' ("near lizard") by Othniel Charles M ...

'', and the pliosaurid ''

Megalneusaurus ''Megalneusaurus'' is an extinct genus of large pliosaur that lived in the Sundance Sea during the Kimmeridgian, ~156-152 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic. It was named by paleontologist W. C. Knight in 1895. The genus and type species wa ...

''.Marsh, O. C., 1880, Note on Sauranodon: ''American Journal of Science, 3rd series'', v. 19, n. 4, p. 491.Marsh, O. C., 1895, The Reptilia of the Baptanodon Beds: American ''Journal of Science, 3rd series'', v. 34., n. 299, p. 405-406.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q55604865 Ophthalmosaurinae Late Jurassic ichthyosaurs Jurassic reptiles of North America Late Jurassic extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1880 Ichthyosauromorph genera

Discovery and species

Classification

Palaeobiology

See also

References