''Ischyrodon'' is a dubious genus of large,

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...

marine reptile Marine reptiles are reptiles which have become secondarily adapted for an aquatic or semiaquatic life in a marine environment. The earliest marine reptile mesosaurus (not to be confused with mosasaurus), arose in the Permian period during the ...

belonging to the Pliosauroidea, a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

of short-necked

plesiosaur The Plesiosauria (; Greek: πλησίος, ''plesios'', meaning "near to" and ''sauros'', meaning "lizard") or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared ...

s and it is known from the

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations co ...

( Callovian) of

Wölflinswil Wölflinswil is a municipality in the district of Laufenburg in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. Geography Wölflinswil has an area, , of . Of this area, or 62.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 31.0% is forested. Of the re ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The type species is ''I. meriani'',von Meyer H. (1838). Mittheilungen, an Prof. Bronn gerichtet. Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie und Petrefaktenkunde. ''Jahrgang'' 1838:413-41 and was previously listed as a synonym of '' Liopleurodon ferox''.Tarlo LB. (1960). A review of the Upper Jurassic pliosaurs. ''Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geology, London'' 4(5):145-189 ''Ischyrodon'' was named in 1838 and described in 1856 by Hermann von Meyer. Lambert Beverly Tarlo noted the possibility of it pertaining to ''Liopleurodon'' in 1960. A 2022 study by Daniel Madzia and colleagues noted that while the tooth likely came from ''Liopleurodon'' or something similar, there was too little information available to make a confident assignment, so they treated ''Ischyrodon'' as 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 ...

'' and did not synonymise ''Ischyrodon'' with ''Liopleurodon''.

References

Pliosaurids Middle Jurassic plesiosaurs of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1838 Fossil taxa described in 1856 Sauropterygian genera {{Jurassic-reptile-stub

See also

References