Monte San Giorgio is a mountain and UNESCO World Heritage Site on the border between Switzerland and Italy. It is part of the Lugano Prealps, overlooking Lake Lugano in the Swiss Canton of Ticino.
Macrocnemus is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile known from the Middle Triassic of Europe and China. Macrocnemus is a member of the Tanystropheidae family and includes three species. Macrocnemus bassanii, the first species to be named and described, is known from the Besano Formation and adjacent paleontological sites in the Italian and Swiss Alps. Macrocnemus fuyuanensis, on the other hand, is known from the Zhuganpo Formation in southern China. A third species, Macrocnemus obristi, is known from the Prosanto Formation of Switzerland and is characterized by gracile limbs. The name Macrocnemus is Greek for "long tibia".
Palaeocoma is an extinct genus of brittle stars that lived during the Middle Triassic to Early Jurassic Periods. Its fossils have been found in Europe.
Holophagus is an extinct genus of coelacanth belonging to Latimeriidae. The type species, Holophagus gulo, is known from the Lower Jurassic marine Lias of England. Some authors have considered the genus restricted to the Lias of England. The species Holophagus penicillata/penicillatus from the Late Jurassic of Europe is now assigned to the genus Undina. The species Holophagus picenus from the Middle Triassic of Europe has also been reassigned by some authors to Undina. At least some specimens assigned to the genus from the Upper Jurassic of Germany actually belong to the genus Libys. The species Holophagus leridae from the Early Cretaceous El Montesec site in Spain, with other remains tenatively referred from the Early Cretaceous Las Hoyas locality also in Spain, probably do not belong in the genus, but have yet to be reassigned elsewhere.
Mawsoniidae is an extinct family of prehistoric coelacanth fishes which lived during the Triassic to Cretaceous periods. Members of the family are distinguished from their sister group, the Latimeriidae by the presence of ossified ribs, a coarse rugose texture on the dermatocranium and cheek bones, the absence of the suboperculum and the spiracular, and reduction or loss of the descending process of the supratemporal. Mawsoniids are known from North America, Europe, South America, Africa, Madagascar and Asia. Unlike Latimeriidae, which are exclusively marine, Mawsoniidae were also native to freshwater and brackish environments. Mawsoniids represent among the youngest known coelacanths, with the youngest known remains of the freshwater genus Axelrodichthys from France and an indeterminate marine species from Morocco being from the final stage of the Cretaceous, the Maastrichtian, roughly equivalent in age to the youngest known fossils of latimeriids. Species of Mawsonia and Trachymetopon are known to have exceeded 5 metres in length, making them among the largest known bony fish to have ever existed.
Serpianosaurus is an extinct genus of pachypleurosaurs known from the Middle Triassic deposits of Switzerland and Germany. It was a small reptile, with the type specimen of S. mirigiolensis measuring 75 cm (2.46 ft) long.
Luganoia is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the Anisian and Ladinian ages of the Middle Triassic epoch. Fossils were recovered from the Besano Formation of Monte San Giorgio and Besano area and from the Zhuganpo Member of Guizhou, South China. It was also reported from the Ladinian of Spain.
Besania is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the Anisian and Ladinian ages of the Middle Triassic epoch in what is now southern/southeastern Switzerland and northern Italy. Fossils were recovered from the Besano Formation of Monte San Giorgio area and the Prosanto Formation of canton Graubünden, Switzerland.
Ctenognathichthys is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived during the Anisian and Ladinian ages of the Middle Triassic epoch in what is now southern/southeastern Switzerland and northern Italy.
Heptanema is an extinct genus of prehistoric coelacanth from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) of northern Italy and Switzerland.
Meridensia is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish that lived during the Anisian and Ladinian ages of the Middle Triassic epoch in what is now southern Switzerland and northern Italy. Fossils were recovered from the Besano Formation of Monte San Giorgio and Besano area at the Swiss-Italian boundary.
Cymbospondylidae is an extinct family of Hueneosaurian Ichthyosaurs known from the Middle Triassic of Europe, North America, and Asia.
Eusaurosphargis is an extinct genus of a diapsid reptile, known from the Middle Triassic Besano Formation of northern Italy and Prosanto Formation of south-eastern Switzerland. It contains a single species, Eusaurosphargis dalsassoi. It was a small reptile, measuring 20 cm (7.9 in) long.
Helveticosauridae is an extinct family of basal marine reptiles known from the Middle Triassic of southern Switzerland and northern Italy.
Foreyia is an extinct genus of coelacanth lobe-finned fish which lived during the Middle Triassic period in what is now Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It contains a single species F. maxkuhni.
Monte Prosa is a mountain in the Saint-Gotthard Massif, a mountain range in the Lepontine Alps of Switzerland.
The Besano Formation is a geological formation in the southern Alps of northwestern Italy and southern Switzerland. This formation, a short but fossiliferous succession of dolomite and black shale, is famous for its preservation of Middle Triassic (Anisian–Ladinian) marine life including fish and aquatic reptiles. It is exposed in the vicinity of Monte San Giorgio and is among the formations responsible for the area being designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Switzerland, it is also known as the Grenzbitumenzone. The Anisian-Ladinian boundary lies in the upper part of the Besano Formation.
Acronemus is an extinct genus of euselachian shark from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland. It is an enigmatic genus of shark with uncertain relations to other sharks. Though originally placed within Ctenacanthiformes, it is now considered Euselachii incertae sedis, due to its mixture of features similar to hybodontiforms and neoselachians. Originally, teeth from this genus were attributed to "Acrodus bicarinatus" while fin spines were named "Nemacanthus tuberculatus". Associated material showed they were the same animal, with the older specific epithet (tuberculatus) taking precedence. The shark was given the new genus Acrocnemus, containing a single species. Acronemus is found in the Anisian-age Grenzbitumenzone of Monte San Giorgio. It was a small shark measuring 30–35 cm (0.98–1.15 ft) long.
The San Salvatore Dolomite, sometimes known as the Salvatore Dolomite or San Salvatore Formation, is a Middle Triassic geological formation in Switzerland and Italy. The primarily lithology is micritic dolomite with a high proportion of algal mounds (stromatolites). It corresponds to a thick warm-water carbonate platform on the northern edge of an island in what is now the Po Plain. This formation and its local equivalents are common in the hills around Lake Maggiore, Varese, and Lugano, preserving fossils of marine invertebrates such as ammonoids, gastropods, and bivalves. At its southernmost extent on Monte San Giorgio, only the lower part of the San Salvatore Dolomite is preserved. The middle and upper parts are replaced by the Besano Formation, San Giorgio Dolomite, and Meride Limestone, which were deposited in a deeper and more anoxic basin between carbonate platforms.
Bernhard Peyer was a Swiss paleontologist and anatomist who served as a professor at the University of Zurich. A major contribution was on the evolution of vertebrate teeth.
