Cymbospondylidae

Cymbospondylidae Temporal range: Early Triassic to Late Triassic, 251–210  Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Cymbospondylus buchseri fossil at the Palaeontological Museum of the University of Zurich
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	† Ichthyopterygia
Order:	† Ichthyosauria
Node:	† Hueneosauria
Suborder:	† Longipinnati
Family:	† Cymbospondylidae Huene, 1948
Genera
† Cymbospondylus † Pachygonosaurus ? † Pessopteryx ? [1] † Phantomosaurus ? † Thalattoarchon ? [2] † Xinminosaurus ?

Cymbospondylidae is an extinct family of hueneosaurian Ichthyosaurs known from the Middle Triassic of Europe, North America, and Asia. ^{[3] [4]}

Taxonomy

Cymbospondylidae is a basal clade of ichthyosaurs. In 2000, Maischand and Matzke recovered cymbospondylids as members of Hueneosauria and more derived than mixosaurids, ^[3] but Ji and colleagues found cymbospondylids to be outside of Hueneosauria in 2015. ^[4] These two studies defined the group in two different ways, with the former defining it as the least inclusive clade containing both Cymbospondylus petrinus and Phantomosaurus neubigi , whereas the latter defined it as the least inclusive clade containing both Cymbospondylus piscosus and Xinminosaurus catactes . ^{[3] [4]}

References

1. Sander, P. M.; Griebeler, E. M.; Klein, N.; Juarbe, J. V.; Wintrich, T.; Revell, L. J.; Schmit, L. (2021). "Early giant reveals faster evolution of large body size in ichthyosaurs than in cetaceans" (PDF). Science. 374: eabf5787.
2. Bindellini, G.; Wolniewicz, A.S.; Miedema, F.; Scheyer, T.M.; Dal Sasso, C. (2021). "Cranial anatomy of Besanosaurus leptorhynchus Dal Sasso & Pinna, 1996 (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) from the Middle Triassic Besano Formation of Monte San Giorgio, Italy/Switzerland: taxonomic and palaeobiological implications". PeerJ. 9 e11179. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11179 . PMC   8106916 . PMID   33996277.
3. Michael W. Maisch & Andreas T. Matzke (2000). "The Ichthyosauria". Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie B. 298: 1–159.
4. Ji, Cheng; Jiang, Da-Yong; Motani, Ryosuke; Rieppel, Olivier; Hao, Wei-Cheng; Sun, Zuo-Yu (2015). "Phylogeny of the Ichthyopterygia incorporating recent discoveries from South China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 36 (1) e1025956. doi:10.1080/02724634.2015.1025956. S2CID   85621052.