''Germanosaurus'', meaning "German lizard", is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

aquatic

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

nothosaurid Nothosauridae are an extinct family of carnivorous aquatic sauropterygian reptiles from the Triassic time period of China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, and northern Africa. Phylogeny The cladogram shown bel ...

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 ...

n known from the early

Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided in chronostratigraphy. The Middle Triassic spans the time between Ma and ...

(early

Anisian In the geologic timescale, the Anisian is the lower stage or earliest age of the Middle Triassic series or epoch and lasted from million years ago until million years ago. The Anisian Age succeeds the Olenekian Age (part of the Lower Triassic Ep ...

stage) Lower Muschelkalk of what was known as

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located ...

, now a part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of ''Germanosaurus'' is ''G. latissimus'', originally named as a species of ''

Nothosaurus ''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 ...

''. After a new generic name was erected for it, the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

fragmentary

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

was lost, possibly during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Rieppel (1997) thus considered the species to be a ''

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...

'' in the species. However, from surviving illustrations and descriptions of the material, he concluded that another taxon known as ''

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 ...

schafferi'', is referable to ''Germanosaurus'' and possibly even represents the same species as ''G. latissimus''. Rieppel removed the species from ''

'' and created the new combination ''G. schafferi'', making it the only valid species of ''Germanosaurus'' diagnosable to the species level. All known material of ''G. schafferi'', including the holotype skull, were collected from the same general locality as the holotype skull of ''G. latissimus'', at Sacrau now Zakrzów Turawski, near Gogolin, Gorny Slask of

. These deposits belong to the lower part of the

Gogolin Formation Gogolin Formation – Triassic geologic Formation (stratigraphy), formation, hitherto named the Gogolin Beds,Assmann P., 1913 – Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Stratigraphie des oberschlesischen Muschelkalks. Jb. Preuss. Geol. Landesanst., 34: 658 – ...

, which is a basal part of the Lower Muschelkalk, dating to the early

stage of the early

, about 247

million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago). ...

References

Nothosaurs Triassic sauropterygians Middle Triassic reptiles of Europe Anisian genera Sauropterygian genera {{triassic-reptile-stub