Ichthyosaurus posthumus

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"Ichthyosaurus" posthumus
Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 150.8  Ma
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  • "Ichthyosaurus" posthumus
    Wagner, 1852
Synonyms

"Ichthyosaurus" posthumus is a species of ichthyosaurs known from the Late Jurassic (early Tithonian age) Solnhofen Formation of Bavaria, Germany. Though several specimens have been referred to this species in the past, its type specimen consists only of isolated teeth that were destroyed during World War II, and it is today considered a nomen dubium . The teeth almost certainly do not belong to Ichthyosaurus itself, which was a wastebin taxon at the time this species was named. [1]

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Automatic taxobox

name = Thunnosaurians

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<i>Malawania</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Malawania is an extinct genus of basal thunnosaur ichthyosaur known from the middle Early Cretaceous of Iraq. Malawania was named by Valentin Fischer, Robert M. Appleby, Darren Naish, Jeff Liston, Riding, J. B., Brindley, S. and Pascal Godefroit in 2013 and the type species is Malawania anachronus. It is unusual as it is much more primitive than other Cretaceous ichthyosaurs, being most closely related to Ichthyosaurus from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic, over 70 million years earlier than Malawania, with all other known ichthyosaurs from the Late Jurassic onwards belonging to the family Ophthalmosauridae.

Timeline of ichthyosaur research

This timeline of ichthyosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the ichthyosauromorphs, a group of secondarily aquatic marine reptiles whose later members superficially resembled dolphins, sharks, or swordfish. Scientists have documented ichthyosaur fossils at least as far back as the late 17th century. At that time, a scholar named Edward Lhwyd published a book on British fossils that misattributed some ichthyosaur vertebrae to actual fishes; their true nature was not recognized until the 19th century. In 1811, a boy named Joseph Anning discovered the first ichthyosaur fossils that would come to be scientifically recognized as such. His sister Mary would later find the rest of its skeleton and would go on to become a respected fossil collector and paleontologist in her own right.

References

  1. Bardet N, Fernández M. (2000), "A new ichthyosaur from the Upper Jurassic lithographic limestones of Bavaria", Journal of Paleontology74 (3): 503-511.