Uronautes

Uronautes; Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Sauropterygia
Order:	Plesiosauria
Family:	Rhomaleosauridae
Genus:	?Uronautes
Species
	?U. cetiformis (Cope, 1876) (type);

Uronautes is a dubious genus of extinct plesiosaur from the family Rhomaleosauridae. Uronautes is known from several fossilized vertebra, portions of a few limbs, and ribs.[1]

Etymology

The word Uronautes comes from a fusion of the two Greek words Ουρα, meaning "tailed," and Ναυτεσ, meaning "sailor", or "mariner".[2] The species name of U. cetiformis comes from the Greek word for whale (or any large sea monster), κῆτος and the Latin word forma, which means "shaped", of "formed" meaning "shape".[3]

Taxonomy

Uronautes was first described by the American paleontologist, Edward Drinker Cope in 1876.[4] Because of the small number of supposed Uronautes fossils, Samuel Paul Welles described the genus as a "nomen dubium", doubting that the remains were evidence of a true genus in 1956.[5] The genus Uronautes is still considered a nomen dubium which means "dubious name". In zoological nomenclature, a nomen dubium is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application.

Description

Like many other rhomaleosaurids, such as Rhomaleosaurus, Uronautes was a short-necked plesiosaur. The Cervical vertebrae are short, with partially attached processes and double-headed ribs.[6]

Distribution

The Judith River, in Montana is a region one of the few areas that are said to contain "Uronautes" fossils[7]

Supposed Urounautes fossils are known from only a few locations: the Cretaceous deposits of the Fox Hills, and in similar deposits near Fort Pierre, and the Judith River, all in Montana.[8][9]

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References

Geological record 1880, pg.280
The Plesiosaur Site - Genus
Latin Word Lookup
E. D. Cope. 1876. On some extinct reptiles and Batrachia from the Judith River and Fox Hills Beds of Montana. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 28:340-359
Professor Paul's Guide to Reptiles: Sauropterygia; plesiosaurs & their relatives: Extinct reptiles, family Rhomaleosauridae; Rhomaleosaurs: Uronautes
Fieldiana: Geology, April 1903, North American Plesiosaurs, Williston. Pg. 11
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Vol. 28, 1876 (1876), pp. 340-359
Fieldiana: Geology, April 1903, North American Plesiosaurs, Williston. Pg. 11
E. D. Cope. 1876. On some extinct reptiles and Batrachia from the Judith River and Fox Hills Beds of Montana. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 28:340-359