| Palvennia Temporal range: Tithonian ~ | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | † Ichthyosauria |
| Family: | † Ophthalmosauridae |
| Genus: | † Palvennia Druckenmiller et al., 2012 |
| Type species | |
| †Palvennia hoybergeti Druckenmiller et al., 2012 | |
Palvennia is an extinct genus of ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurian known from the uppermost Jurassic of Central Spitsbergen, Norway. [1] [2] It was named for PalVenn, the Friends of the Palaeontological Museum in Oslo, whose expedition led to the discovery of the type specimen. Palvennia was a medium-sized ichthyosaur, measuring 3–4 m (9.8–13.1 ft) long. [3] It was originally known from a single skull from the Slottsmøya Member of the Agardhfjellet Formation (middle Volgian/late Tithonian, Late Jurassic) that measures 86 cm (2 ft 10 in) long. It is unusual in having a very short rostrum (~0.6× the skull length), similar to Ichthyosaurus breviceps. Because of this, the orbit seems very large (0.34× the skull length), but this may be affected by crushing. The single and only known species is Palvennia hoybergeti Druckenmiller et al., 2012. [1] A second specimen, which included both cranial and anterior postcranial material, was described in 2018. [4] In 2019, Palvennia was synonymized with Arthropterygius , though maintained as a separate species, by Nikolay Zverkov and Natalya Prilepskaya, [5] although this synonymy was objected to later that same year by Lene Delsett and colleagues, who maintained that they were sufficiently different to warrant separate genera. [6]
