''Eretmosaurus'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of plesiosaur.

Taxonomic history

''Eretmosaurus'' was coined by

Harry Govier Seeley Harry Govier Seeley (18 February 1839 – 8 January 1909) was a British paleontologist. Early life Seeley was born in London on 18 February 1839, the second son of Richard Hovill Seeley, a goldsmith, and his second wife Mary Govier. When his fat ...

for ''Plesiosaurus rugosus'' Owen, 1840. Richard Owen had coined the name ''P. rugosus'' for numerous vertebrae from the Early Jurassic

Blue Lias The Blue Lias is a geological formation in southern, eastern and western England and parts of South Wales, part of the Lias Group. The Blue Lias consists of a sequence of limestone and shale layers, laid down in latest Triassic and early Jurassi ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

and other unspecified locations in the UK. Later, Owen described a headless skeleton (NHMUK 14435) that he assigned to ''P. rugosus'',R. Owen. 1865. A monograph of the fossil Reptilia of the Liassic formations. Part I, Sauropterygia. Palaeontographical Society Monographs 17(75):1-40 and Seeley used NHMUK 14435 as the basis for coining a new genus for this species.

References

Plesiosauroids Early Jurassic plesiosaurs of Europe Jurassic England Fossil taxa described in 1874 Taxa named by Harry Seeley Sauropterygian genera {{plesiosaur-stub

Taxonomic history

See also

References