''Quasianosteosaurus'' 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 of

basal Basal or basilar is a term meaning ''base'', ''bottom'', or ''minimum''. Science * Basal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features associated with the base of an organism or structure * Basal (medicine), a minimal level that is nec ...

ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurs (Ancient Greek for "fish lizard" – and ) are large extinct marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers' – a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, altho ...

known from the late Early Triassic (late Olenekian stage) of

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

of the

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

archipelago, Norway. It was first named by Michael W. Maisch and Andreas T. Matzke in

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and the type species is ''Quasianosteosaurus vikinghoegdai''. The generic name is derived from Latin ''quasi'', "almost", and Greek ''anosteos'', "boneless" and ''sauros'', "lizard", in reference to the preservation of the holotype which is almost exclusively a natural cast of the skull with very little original bone. 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 ...

is derived from ''Vikinghøgda'', "Mount Viking", where the holotype was found. ''Quasianosteosaurus'' is known only from the holotype MNHN Nr. SVT 331, a partial three-dimensionally preserved skull consisting of the snout and

orbital Orbital may refer to: Sciences Chemistry and physics * Atomic orbital * Molecular orbital * Hybrid orbital Astronomy and space flight * Orbit ** Earth orbit Medicine and physiology * Orbit (anatomy), also known as the ''orbital bone'' * Orbito ...

and postorbital regions. The skull is by far the largest Early Triassic ichthyosaur skull known, with estimated

cranial Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position pro ...

length at . It was collected from the lowermost ''

Grippia ''Grippia'' is a genus of early ichthyopterygian, an extinct group of reptiles that resembled dolphins. Its only species is ''Grippia longirostris''. It was a relatively small ichthyopterygian, measuring long and weighing . Fossil remains from ...

'' Niveau of the

Sticky Keep Formation Sticky may refer to: People * Sticky (musician), alias of UK garage producer Richard Forbes *Sticky Fingaz or Sticky (born 1973), nickname of the US rapper and actor Kirk Jones Adhesion * Adhesion, the tendency of dissimilar particles or surfaces ...

(Spathian substage), Sassendalen Group at Mount Viking,

Sassendalen Sassendalen is a valley at Spitsbergen, Svalbard. The valley is among the largest valleys of Svalbard, and continues westwards into Sassenfjorden. Part of the valley divides Sabine Land and Nordenskiöld Land Nordenskiöld Land is the land area ...

. A phylogenetic analysis performed by Maisch & Matzke (2003) found it to be a basal ichthyosaur, sister taxon to

Hueneosauria The Hueneosauria are a group of Ichthyosauria, living during the Mesozoic. In 2000, Michael Werner Maisch and Andreas Matzke defined a node clade Hueneosauria as the group consisting of the last common ancestor of ''Mixosaurus cornalianus'' an ...

References

Ichthyosauromorph genera Early Triassic ichthyosaurs Early Triassic reptiles of Europe Fossil taxa described in 2008 {{ichthyosaur-stub