Eurysaurus
Eurysaurus (meaning "wide lizard") is an extinct genus of plesiosaur, originally classed as a nothosaur, from the Early Jurassic of Echenoz-la-Meline, France, named in 1878. The type material, consisting of a cranium, teeth and five vertebrae, is now lost.[1] The type species is E. raincourti, and a second species, E. schafferi, was named in 1924 but it has since been absorbed into the unrelated genus Germanosaurus.[2]
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| Genus: | †Eurysaurus Gaudry, 1878 |
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| †Eurysaurus raincourti Gaudry, 1878 | |
History
The holotype, first described in 1878 by Albert Gaudry, has since been lost. A new study based essentially on illustrations of the type material by Noah (2001) has considered Eurysaurus a nomen dubium, probably congeneric with the pliosaur Simolestes.[3] However, due to the stratigraphic difference of the two forms, it is possible that Eurysaurus was a separate genus in its own right.
Classification
Gaudry in 1878 originally classified Eurysaurus as a nothosaur.[1] In 2001, Noah reclassified Eurysaurus as a plesiosaur, possibly belonging to the Pliosauroidea.[3]
References
- Gaudry, a. 1878. Sur un grand reptile fossil (the Eurysaurus raincourti). Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des Séances de l ' Académie des Sciences, Paris, 86: 1031–1033.
- O. Rieppel. 1997. Revision of the sauropterygian reptile genus Cymatosaurus v. Fritsch, 1894, and the relationships of Germanosaurus Nopcsa, 1928, from the Middle Triassic of Europe. Fieldiana: Geology, new series
- Noah, LF 2001. A taxonomic and functional study of the Callovian (Middle Jurassic) Plesiosauroidea (Reptilia, Sauropterygia). Ph.D. thesis, University of Derby, Derby, UK.