| Clarazia Temporal range: Middle Triassic, | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | † Thalattosauria |
| Superfamily: | † Thalattosauroidea |
| Genus: | † Clarazia Peyer, 1936 |
| Type species | |
| Clarazia schinzi Peyer, 1936 | |
Clarazia is an extinct genus of thalattosaur from the Middle Triassic of Monte San Giorgio in Switzerland. It is represented by a single type species, Clarazia schinzi, which was named in 1936. [1] [2]
Tanystropheus is an extinct 6-meter-long (20 ft) reptile that dates from the Middle to Late Triassic epochs. It is recognizable by its extremely elongated neck, which measured 3 m (9.8 ft) long—longer than its body and tail combined. The neck was composed of 12–13 extremely elongated vertebrae. With its very long but relatively stiff neck, Tanystropheus has been often proposed and reconstructed as an aquatic or semi-aquatic reptile, a theory supported by the fact that the creature is most commonly found in semi-aquatic fossil sites wherein known terrestrial reptile remains are scarce. Fossils have been found in Europe. Complete skeletons of small individuals are common in the Besano Formation at Monte San Giorgio in Italy and Switzerland; other fossils have been found in the Middle East and China, dating from the Middle Triassic to the early part of the Late Triassic.
Ceresiosaurus is an extinct aquatic genus of lariosaurine nothosaurid sauropterygian known from the Middle Triassic of Monte San Giorgio, southern Switzerland and northern Italy. Ceresiosaurus, meaning "Lizard of Ceresio". The type species, Ceresiosaurus calcagnii, was named by Bernhard Peyer in 1931. C. calcagnii is known from both the Cava superiore and Cava inferiore beds of the Lower Meride Limestone at Monte San Giorgio, dating to the latest Anisian of the Middle Triassic. Rieppel (1998) suggested that the back then monospecific genus Ceresiosaurus, is a junior synonym of the better known Lariosaurus, yet he kept it type species as a separate species under the new combination L. calcagnii. In 2004, however, this synonymy was objected by Hänni who described and name a second species of Ceresiosaurus, C. lanzi - a separation supported by several other authors since. This species is known only from the stratigraphically younger Cassima beds of Monte San Giorgio, although also from the Lower Meride Limestone, dating to possibly the lowest Ladinian age. The species in a subtropical lagoonal environment with varying open marine influences, and alongside many related but smaller species of nothosaurids and pachypleurosaurids. Ceresiosaurus represents one of the largest vertebrate of up to 3 m snout-tail length from the very diversified paleoenvironment of the Middle Triassic Monte San Giorgio.
Askeptosaurus is an extinct genus of askeptosauroid, a marine reptile from the extinct order Thalattosauria. Askeptosaurus is known from several well-preserved fossils found in Middle Triassic marine strata in what is now Italy and Switzerland.
Ticinosuchus is an extinct genus of suchian archosaur from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland and Italy.
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.
Birgeria is a genus of carnivorous marine ray-finned fish from the Triassic period. Birgeria had a global distribution. Fossils were found in Madagascar, Spitsbergen, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, China, Russia, Canada and Nevada, United States. The oldest fossils are from Griesbachian aged beds of the Wordie Creek Formation of East Greenland.
Ticinepomis is an extinct genus of coelacanth lobe-finned fish which lived during the Middle Triassic period in what is now Switzerland. It contains a single species, T. peyeri. T. peyeri specimens are most common in the Besano Formation of Monte San Giorgio in Ticino. Other coelacanths from Monte San Giorgio include a larger species from the Besano Formation, and a species of Heptanema from the Meride Limestone. Larger Ticinepomis specimens have been found in the Prosanto Formation of Graubünden.
Serpianosaurus is an extinct genus of pachypleurosaurs known from the Middle Triassic deposits of Switzerland and Germany.
Mikadocephalus is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur. Its remains have been found in Europe, in the Anisian of Switzerland. The type species is Mikadocephalus gracilirostris. In 2021, Bindellini and colleagues considered M. gracilirostris to be a junior synonym of Besanosaurus leptorhynchus.
Wimanius is a mixosaurid ichthyosaur, and the only genus in the family Wimaniidae. It existed during the Triassic Period in what is now Switzerland. It was described by Maisch and Matzke in 1998 based on fossils found in the Monte San Giorgio Formation, and the type species is Wimanius odontopalatus.
Nothosauridae are an extinct family of carnivorous aquatic sauropterygian reptiles from the Triassic time period of China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, and northern Africa.
Blezingeria is an extinct genus of marine reptile from the Middle Triassic of Germany. The type and only species Blezingeria ichthyospondyla was named by German paleontologist Eberhard Fraas in 1896. It is known from many isolated bones that come from a deposit in southwestern Germany called the Upper Muschelkalk, which dates back to the Ladinian stage. The relationships of Blezingeria are uncertain. Fraas identified it as a nothosaur, but it has also been classified as a cymbospondylid ichthyosaur, and most recently a thalattosaur. Many thalattosaur fossils have been found in a slightly olderLate Ladinian-age rock unit in Monte San Giorgio, Switzerland, so if Blezingeria is a thalattosaur, it may represent an early stage in an evolutionary radiation of the group across the Tethys, an ocean that covered much of what is now Europe and southern China during the Triassic. However, since Blezingeria is known from very incomplete material, its classification as a thalattosaur remains uncertain.
Hescheleria is an extinct genus of thalattosaurian marine reptile from the Middle Triassic of Monte San Giorgio in Switzerland. It is represented by a single type species, H. ruebeli, which was named in 1936.
Silvestrosaurus is an extinct aquatic genus of lariosaurine nothosaurid sauropterygian known from the Middle Triassic of Monte San Giorgio, southern Switzerland. It contains a single species, Silvestrosaurus buzzii, originally considered to be a species of the closely related Lariosaurus. The species was named by Tschanz in 1989, based solely on the holotype PIMUZ T/2804 comprising the skull, the lower jaw, and a dis-articulated partial postcranial skeleton. Cyamodus hildegardis tooth bearing elements were found in the stomach region of the specimen. The holotype was collected at Punkt 902 of Monte San Giorgio, from layer 97 of the Grenzbitumen zone, dating to the Anisian-Ladinian boundary of the Middle Triassic. Kuhn-Schnyner (1990) reassigned the species to its own genus, creating the combination S. buzzii. The generic name honors a church near the collection locality of the holotype, dedicated to Saint Sylvester, a Pope during the reign of Constantine the Great, and from Greek saurus, meaning "lizard", a common suffix for genus names of extinct reptile.
Helveticosauridae is an extinct family of basal marine reptiles known from the Middle Triassic of southern Switzerland and northern Italy.
Ohmdenia is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived from the Toarcian stage of the Early Jurassic epoch. Ohmdenia was first described in 1953 by B. Hauff, based on a fossil found in the well-known Posidonia Shale in Holzmaden, Germany. For a long time this animal has been considered a close relative of Birgeria, a great predator typical of the Triassic period with an uncertain systematic position. Further studies have shown similarities with the Pachycormiformes, a group considered close to the origin of teleosts and also including giant forms and planktives. Some studies have erroneously indicated Ohmdenia as a synonym of Saurostomus, other studies have instead placed Ohmdenia as an important evolutionary passage between the basal pachicormiforms and the more derived planktivore pachicormiformes.
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 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.
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.
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.
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