''Franconiasaurus'' (meaning "

Franconia Franconia ( ; ; ) is a geographical region of Germany, characterised by its culture and East Franconian dialect (). Franconia is made up of the three (governmental districts) of Lower Franconia, Lower, Middle Franconia, Middle and Upper Franco ...

reptile") is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus of basal plesiosauroid plesiosaurs from the

Early Jurassic The Early Jurassic Epoch (geology), Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic series (stratigraphy), Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic� ...

of Germany. The genus contains a single species, ''F. brevispinus'', known from two well-preserved three-dimensional skeletons.

Discovery and naming

The ''Franconiasaurus'' fossil material was discovered in sediments of the Mistelgau fossil pit of the lower Jurensismergel Formation ('' Grammoceras thouarsense'' Zone) in

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

District,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, Germany. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

specimen, BT 011224.00, was discovered between 2014 and 2018 and consists of a nearly complete, partially

articulated An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent coupling in its construction. This coupling works as a large pivot joint, allowing it to bend and turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buse ...

skeleton. BT 011241.00, an incomplete disarticulated specimen discovered in 2005, was also referred to ''Franconiasaurus''. In 2024, Sachs, Eggmaier & Madzia described ''Franconiasaurus brevispinus'' as a new genus and species of plesiosauroid based on these fossil remains. The generic name, "Franconiasaurus''", combines

, after the Bavarian region of the type locality, with the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

"σαῦρος" ("sauros"), meaning "reptile". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, "''brevispinus''", references the short neural spines of some of the cervical and dorsal vertebrae. Franconiasaurus Life Restoration

Classification

In their

phylogenetic analyses In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as Computational phylogenetics, phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organ ...

, Sachs, Eggmaier & Madzia (2024) recovered ''Franconiasaurus'' as a plesiosauroid member of the

Plesiosauria The Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period, possibly in the Rhaetian stage, about 203 million year ...

, as the

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

to the

Cryptoclidia Plesiosauroidea (; Ancient Greek, Greek: 'near, close to' and 'lizard') is an extinct clade of carnivore, carnivorous Marine (ocean), marine Reptilia, reptiles. They have the snake-like longest neck to body ratio of any reptile. Plesiosauroid ...

. This suggests that ''Franconiasaurus'' fills an evolutionary gap between more basal taxa (like early plesiosauroids including ''

Plesiosaurus ''Plesiosaurus'' (Greek: ' ('), near to + ' ('), lizard) is a genus of extinct, large marine sauropterygian reptile that lived during the Early Jurassic. It is known by nearly complete skeletons from the Lias of England. It is distinguishable by ...

''-like forms and microcleidids) and later-diverging taxa (including cryptoclidids, leptocleidians, and

elasmosaurids Elasmosauridae, often called elasmosaurs or elasmosaurids, is an extinct family (biology), family of plesiosaurs that lived from the Hauterivian Stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Early Cretaceous to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceou ...

). Their results are displayed in the

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

below:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q124407976 Plesiosauroids Early Jurassic plesiosaurs of Europe Jurassic Germany Fossils of Germany Toarcian life Sauropterygian genera Fossil taxa described in 2024

Discovery and naming

Classification

See also

References