Cimoliasaurus

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Cimoliasaurus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian
Cimoliasaurus.jpg
Cimoliasaurus magnus vertebrae
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder:† Sauropterygia
Order:† Plesiosauria
Family:† Elasmosauridae
Genus:† Cimoliasaurus
Leidy, 1851
Type species
†Cimoliasaurus magnus
Leidy, 1851

Cimoliasaurus was a plesiosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of the eastern United States, with fossils known from New Jersey, North Carolina, and Maryland.

Contents

Etymology

The name is derived from the Greek Κιμωλίαkimolia, meaning "white chalk", and σαύροςsauros, meaning "lizard", in reference to the fact that the deposits in which it was found bear a superficial resemblance to the chalk deposits of the Western Interior Seaway.

Taxonomic history

A: Cimoliasaurus australis Cimoliasaurus australis.jpg
A: Cimoliasaurus australis

The name Cimoliasaurus magnus was coined by Joseph Leidy for ANSP 9235, one anterior and 12 posterior cervical vertebrae collected in Maastrichtian-aged greensand deposits of the New Egypt and Navesink Formations in Burlington County, New Jersey. [1] A specimen is also known from coeval limestone deposits of the Peedee Formation in Pender County, North Carolina. [2] There is also a tentative record from the Maastrichtian-aged Severn Formation in Maryland when in 1988, Colin McEwen discovered a vertebra of a Cimoliasaurus during a school field trip. The discovery is recorded in the National Geographic November 1988 issue. [3]

In his catalogue of plesiosaur and ichthyosaur specimens preserved in the NHM, the British zoologist Richard Lydekker referred several Jurassic and Cretaceous plesiosaur species to Cimoliasaurus, including the new species C. richardsoni (now considered a species of Cryptoclidus ) and C. cantabrigiensis, as well as Colymbosaurus and a number of previously described species from the Cambridge Greensand and Chalk Group. [4]

Nowadays, Cimoliasaurus is now recognized as being a derived elasmosaurid, effectively making the family name Cimoliasauridae Delair, 1959 a junior synonym of Elasmosauridae. [5]

Misassigned nominal species

See also

References

  1. ↑ Leidy, J. 1851. [Descriptions of a number of fossil reptilian and mammalian remains]. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 5:325-327.
  2. ↑ Parris, David C.; Grandstaff, Barbara Smith (2004). "A Pterosaur Femur From The Upper Cretaceous of North Carolina" (PDF). Southeastern Geology. 43 (1): 51–55.
  3. ↑ "PBDB Taxon". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  4. ↑ Lydekker., R., 1889, Catalogue of the fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part II. Containing the orders Ichthyopterygia and Sauropterygia: London, Printed by Order of the Trustees of the British Museum, p. 307pp.
  5. ↑ F. Robin O'Keefe and Hallie P. Street (2009). "Osteology Of The Cryptoclidoid Plesiosaur Tatenectes laramiensis, With Comments On The Taxonomic Status Of The Cimoliasauridae". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29 (1): 48–57.
  6. ↑ Czech article about C. teplicensis with English summary on Osel.cz
  7. ↑ Fritsch, A. (1906). Über neue Saurierfunde in der Kreideformation Böhmens. Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Böhmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Classe Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche, 1906(33): 1–6.
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