Platypterygius

Platypterygius is an ichthyosaur of the family Ophthalmosauridae. It is most closely related to the genera Caypullisaurus and Brachypterygius.[2] The ichthyosaur lived from the Early Cretaceous (Hauterivian) to the earliest Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) and had a cosmopolitan distribution.

Platypterygius
Temporal range: Late Hauterivian-Late Cenomanian
~130–94.3 Ma
Skull of P. sachicarum in the Paleontological Museum in Villa de Leyva, Colombia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Sauropsida
Order:
†Ichthyosauria
Family:
†Ophthalmosauridae
Subfamily:
†Platypterygiinae
Genus:
†Platypterygius

Species
  • †P. platydactylus Broilli 1907 type
  • †P. americanus Nace 1939
  • †P. australis McCoy 1867
  • †P. hautali von Huene 1927
  • †P. hercynicus Kuhn 1946
  • †P. kiprijanoffi Romer 1968
  • †P. ochevi Arkhangel'sky et al. 2008[1]
  • †P. sachicarum Páramo 1997

Description
Restoration of P. longmani

Platypterygius reached a length of about 7 metres (23 ft). It had a long snout and a powerful finned tail. There are more digits in the front flippers than is usual in ichthyosaurs; they are tightly bound in rows, giving a broad, flat appearance . This unusual characteristic gives the genus its name, meaning 'flat wing.' Furthermore, some of the wrist bones have disappeared entirely. CAT scans on a juvenile specimen strongly suggest that Platypterygius was deaf.

Discovery and species

There are eight named species. Both adults and juveniles have been unearthed, including newborns and pregnant females which indicate that, like other ichthyosaurs, Platypterygius gave live birth.

The remains from Australia were originally called Ichthyosaurus australis. They are from the Toolebuc Formation and Allaru Mudstone (Albian, Lower Cretaceous) of Flinders River and other localities in north central Queensland. In 1990 Wade erected the species name P. longmani to include all remains previously referred to I. australis.

Recognized species
  • Platypterygius platydactylus Broilli, 1907 (type)
  • Platypterygius americanus Nace, 1939
  • Platypterygius australis McCoy, 1867
  • Platypterygius hautali von Huene, 1927
  • Platypterygius hercynicus Kuhn, 1946
  • Platypterygius kiprijanoffi Romer, 1968
  • Platypterygius ochevi Arkhangelsky et al., 2008
  • Platypterygius sachicarum Páramo, 1997

Formerly assigned species
Skull of P. sp., Sternberg Museum of Natural History


Classification
Photo, 3D model and tomography of the left flipper of P. sachicarum on the cover of Boletín de Geología

The cladogram below follows the topology from a 2010 analysis by Patrick S. Druckenmiller and Erin E. Maxwell.[5]

Thunnosauria 
 

Ichthyosaurus

 
 
 

Stenopterygius

 
 
 

"Ophthalmosaurus" natans

 
 Ophthalmosauridae 
 
 

Aegirosaurus

 
 

Ophthalmosaurus

 
 
 
 

Mollesaurus

 
 
 

Athabascasaurus

 
 
 

Brachypterygius

 
 
 

Arthropterygius

 
 

Caypullisaurus

 
 

"Platypterygius" hercynicus

 
 

"Platypterygius" australis (=Longirostria)[6]

 
 

Platypterygius platydactylus (type)

 
 
 

Maiaspondylus

 
 

"Platypterygius" americanus (=Tenuirostria)[6]

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Palaeobiology
P. kiprijanovi - Albian-Cenomanian of Kursk region (Russia)

P. australis has been found with remains of sea turtles and birds (Nanantius) in its guts.[7] Several species attributed to this genus do indeed appear to be apex predators, specialised to hunting proportionally large prey.[8]

Distribution

Fossils of Platypterygius are known from:[9]

gollark: Thanks to advanced Linu-X™ technology, updates can take place in the background, generally do not randomly break things, and don't (mostly) require reboots!
gollark: That reminds me, I should update my computer.
gollark: Upvalues are a reasonable concern I didn't think of actually... this isn't really doable sanely then.
gollark: That would defeat the point of lambdas.
gollark: What you could do is have a table mapping input lambda strings (or hashes of them) to pre-loadstringed, setfenved functions.

See also

References
  1. Arkhangelsky et al., 2008
  2. Fernández, 2007
  3. Fischer et al., 2014
  4. Fischer, 2016
  5. Druckenmiller & Maxwell, 2010
  6. Arkhangelsky, 1998
  7. Kear et al., 2003
  8. Fischer et al., 2016
  9. Platypterygius at Fossilworks.org
  10. Páramo, 2018, p.16
  11. Pardo Pérez et al., 2012
  12. Páramo, 1997

Bibliography

Further reading
  • Long, J.A., Dinosaurs of Australia and New Zealand, UNSW Press, Australia 1998
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.