''Grendelius'' is a genus of

platypterygiine Platypterygiinae is an extinct subfamily of ophthalmosaurid thunnosaur ichthyosaurs from the early Late Jurassic to the early Late Cretaceous (Kimmeridgian - Cenomanian) of Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Currentl ...

ophthalmosaurid Ophthalmosauridae is an extinct family of thunnosaur ichthyosaurs from the Middle Jurassic to the early Late Cretaceous (Bajocian - Cenomanian) worldwide. Almost all ichthyosaurs from the Middle Jurassic onwards belong to the family, until the ex ...

ichthyosaur from the Late Jurassic (

Kimmeridgian In the geologic timescale, the Kimmeridgian is an age in the Late Jurassic Epoch and a stage in the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 157.3 ± 1.0 Ma and 152.1 ± 0.9 Ma (million years ago). The Kimmeridgian follows the Oxfordian ...

Tithonian In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 152.1 ± 4 Ma and 145.0 ± 4 Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the K ...

) of the UK and European Russia. It was a medium-sized ichthyosaur measuring about long.

Taxonomy

The type species, ''Grendelius mordax'', was described in 1976 on the basis of CAMSM J.68516, a complete skull with associated postcranial elements from the

Kimmeridge Clay The Kimmeridge Clay is a sedimentary deposit of fossiliferous marine clay which is of Late Jurassic to lowermost Cretaceous age and occurs in southern and eastern England and in the North Sea. This rock formation is the major source rock for North ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Later, it was reassigned to ''

Brachypterygius ''Brachypterygius'' (meaning ″short wing/paddle″ in Greek) is an extinct genus of platypterygiine ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur known from the Late Jurassic of England.McGowan, C. & Motani, R. ''Ichthyopterygia''. In Sues, H.-D. (ed.) Handb ...

'' because differences between the two species were considered insufficient to warrant separate genera, or even species.McGowan, C. 1997. The taxonomic status of Grendelius mordax: a preliminary report. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 17, 428–430. doi:10.1080/02724634.1997.10010986McGowan, C. & Motani, R. Ichthyopterygia. In Sues, H.-D. (ed.) Handbook of Paleoherpetology, vol. 8. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, Munich, 175 pp., 19 pls. Efimov, 1998 named a new genus of ichthyosaur, ''Otschevia pseudoscythica'' on the basis of a single specimen (the holotype) from the ''Pseudoscythia'' Zone (late

stage of the Late Jurassic) of

Ulyanovsk Ulyanovsk, known until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Population: The city, founded as Simbirsk (), was the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin (born ...

Volga region The Volga Region (russian: Поволжье, ''Povolzhye'', literally: "along the Volga") is a historical region in Russia that encompasses the drainage basin of the Volga River, the longest river in Europe, in central and southern European Russ ...

, Russia.Efimov VM. 1998. An Ichthyosaur, ''Otschevia pseudoscythica'' gen. et sp. nov. from the Upper Jurassic Strata of the Ulyanovsk Region (Volga Region). ''Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal'' 32 (2): 187-191. Later, Arkangelsky, 1998 described ''Brachypterygius zhuravlevi'' from a Tithonian-stage locality in

Saratov Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgograd. Saratov had a population of 901,36 ...

, Russia, subsequently referring it to ''Otschevia zhuravlevi''.Arkhangelsky, M. S. 1998. On the ichthyosaurian fossils from the Volgian stage of the Saratov Region. ''Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal'', 1998, 87–91.Arkhangelsky, M. S. 2000. On the ichthyosaur ''Otschevia'' from the Volgian Stage of the Volga Region. ''Paleontological Journal'', 34, 549–552. Maisch & Matzke, 2000 considered both Russian taxa to be synonyms of each other, and referred the new combination ''B. pseudoscythicus'' to ''Brachypterygius''.Maisch MW, Matzke AT. 2000. The Ichthyosauria. ''Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie)'' 298: 1-159 Thus, ''Grendelius'' and ''Otschevia'' are considered to be

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 ...

s of ''Brachypterygius''. Arkhangelsky named ''Otschevia alekseevi'' in 2001, also from the Late Jurassic of Russia.Arkhangelsky, M. S. 2001. On a new ichthyosaur of the genus ''Otschevia'' from the Volgian Stage of the Volga Region near Ulyanovsk. ''Paleontological Journal'', 35, 629–635. While McGowan and Motani (2003) considered these Russian taxa to be junior synonyms of ''B. extremus'', Maisch (2010) retained them, and ''B. mordax'', as separate species. A paper published in 2015 found ''Grendelius'' to be generically distinct from the ''Brachypterygius'' type species and more derived within Platypterygiinae, being more closely related to ''

Platypterygius ''Platypterygius'' is a historically paraphyletic genus of platypterygiine ichthyosaur from the Cretaceous period. It was historically used as a wastebasket taxon, and most species within ''Platypterygius'' likely are undiagnostic at the genus or ...

'' than to ''Brachypterygius''. ''Otschevia'' was considered to be a junior synonym of ''Grendelius''. The following cladogram shows a possible phylogenetic position of ''Grendelius'' in Ophthalmosauridae according to the analysis performed by Zverkov and Jacobs (2020).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q27989454 Fossil taxa described in 1976 Late Jurassic ichthyosaurs Late Jurassic reptiles of Europe Ichthyosauromorph genera

Taxonomy

See also

References