''Icarosaurus'' (meaning "

Icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; grc, Ἴκαρος, Íkaros, ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, King Minos suspe ...

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 ...

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 ...

kuehneosaurid Kuehneosauridae is an extinct family of small, lizard-like gliding diapsids known from the Triassic period of Europe and North America. They are distinguished from other diapsids by their 'wings' formed by elongated ribs. These allowed the anim ...

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

from the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch ...

(

Norian The Norian is a division of the Triassic Period. It has the rank of an age (geochronology) or stage (chronostratigraphy). It lasted from ~227 to million years ago. It was preceded by the Carnian and succeeded by the Rhaetian. Stratigraphic defi ...

age) Lower

Lockatong Formation The Triassic Lockatong Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It is named after the Lockatong Creek in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Description The Lockatong is defined as a light to dark gray, greenish-gra ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

.Berg, T.M., ''et al''. (1983). Stratigraphic Correlation Chart of Pennsylvania: G75, Pennsylvania Geologic Survey, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is closely related to

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

s and the

tuatara Tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') are reptiles endemic to New Zealand. Despite their close resemblance to lizards, they are part of a distinct lineage, the order Rhynchocephalia. The name ''tuatara'' is derived from the Māori language and m ...

. Based on a partial skeleton missing part of the tail, some ribs, a hand, and parts of the legs, it was a small animal, about 10 centimeters (4 in) long from the skull to the hips. Like its relative ''

Kuehneosaurus ''Kuehneosaurus'' is an extinct genus of Late Triassic kuehneosaurid reptile known from the Late Triassic ( Norian stage) of the Penarth Group of southwest England and the Steinmergel Group of Luxembourg. Temperature at this stage and region w ...

'', it was able to glide short distances using 'wings' consisting of highly elongated

rib In vertebrate anatomy, ribs ( la, costae) are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the chest, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ches ...

s covered with

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other cuticle, animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have diffe ...

. These gliding membranes would have had a convex upper surface and a concave lower surface, thus creating a simple

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine. ...

structure well-suited to gliding. This method of gliding is also seen in ''

Coelurosauravus ''Coelurosauravus'' (meaning "hollow lizard grandfather") is a genus of basal diapsid reptiles, known from the Late Permian of Madagascar. Like other members of the family Weigeltisauridae, members of this genus possessed long, rod-like ossifica ...

'' and the modern ''

Draco Draco is the Latin word for serpent or dragon. Draco or Drako may also refer to: People * Draco (lawgiver) (from Greek: Δράκων; 7th century BC), the first lawgiver of ancient Athens, Greece, from whom the term ''draconian'' is derived * D ...

'', neither of which are closely related to ''Icarosaurus''.

Discovery and history

The only known fossil skeleton which definitely belongs to ''Icarosaurus'' was found in 1960 in

North Bergen North Bergen is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a total population of 63,361. The township was founded in 1843. It was much diminished in territory by a ...

, New Jersey by Alfred Siefker, a teenager at the time, who stumbled upon the specimen while exploring a quarry. Siefker brought the specimen to scientists at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

in New York for identification and preparation.Wong, K. (2000).
Icarosaurus Home to Roost
" ''Scientific American'', 27 September 2000. Accessed online 17 December 2010, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=icarosaurus-home-to-roost It was described by paleontologist

Edwin Harris Colbert Edwin Harris "Ned" Colbert (September 28, 1905 – November 15, 2001)O'Connor, Anahad ''The New York Times'', November 25, 2001. was a distinguished American vertebrate paleontologist and prolific researcher and author. Born in Clarinda, Iowa, he ...

in 1966, who named it ''Icarosaurus siefkeri'' in honor of Siefker. Icarosaurus copy

The fossil remained in the collections of the AMNH until the late 1980s. In 1989, Siefker reclaimed the specimen, which he kept in a private collection during the following decade. In 2000, Siefker sold the fossil at auction in San Francisco through the auction house

Butterfield & Butterfield Bonhams and Butterfield was a large American auction house, founded in 1865 by William Butterfield in San Francisco. It was purchased in 1999 from Bernard Osher by online auctioneer eBay for $260 million. In 2002, it was acquired from eBay by Br ...

, despite concerns from paleontologists that the sale could render the specimen unavailable for scientific study. The fossil sold for US$167,000, only half of its appraised value, to Dick Spight of California. That same year, Spight donated the ''Icarosaurus'' holotype back to the AMNH, where it was put on display 7 October 2000.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2697692 Triassic lepidosauromorphs Prehistoric reptile genera Late Triassic reptiles of North America