''Woolungasaurus'' ('Woolunga lizard', named after an Aboriginal mythical reptile, Persson 1960) is a plesiosaur, an extinct marine reptile, belonging to the Elasmosauridae. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

, ''Woolungasaurus glendowerensis'', was named after Glendower Station by Per Ove Persson in 1960,Persson, P.O., 1960, "Lower Cretaceous Plesiosaurians (Reptilia) from Australia", ''Lunds Universitets Arsskrift'' 56(12): 1-23 is known from a partial skeleton,

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

QM F6890, (forty-six vertebrae, ribs, forearms, shoulder girdle and part of the rear limbs) unearthed from the

Wallumbilla Formation The Wallumbilla Formation is an Aptian geologic formation found in Australia. Plesiosaur and theropod remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from its strata. Description The formation is present in the Northern Territory, Que ...

(

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/ Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0 ...

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eig ...

) of the Richmond District,

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. Another find of undetermined species, consisting of twelve vertebrae, was unearthed from the Maree Formation (

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

, of uncertain age) of

Neales River The Neales River is a watercourse located in the Far North region of the Australian state of South Australia. The river is a tributary of Lake Eyre. The Central Australia Railway, on which The Ghan passenger train operated until 1980, crossed ...

, near

Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains th ...

, South Australia. A skull formerly referred to this genus from Yambore Creek, near Maxwelton, Queensland, is now the holotype of ''

Eromangasaurus ''Eromangasaurus'' is an extinct genus of elasmosaurid known from northern Queensland of Australia. Description ''Eromangasaurus'' is a medium-sized elasmosaurid, measuring in length and in body mass. It is known from the holotype QM F11 ...

''. However, because of the uninformative, flawed diagnosis of Persson (1960), Welles (1962) considered ''Woolungasaurus'' a '' nomen dubium''. In 2004, the genus was referred to '' Styxosaurus'' by Sven Sachs in 2004.Sachs, S., 2004, "Redescription of ''Woolungasaurus glendowerensis'' (Plesiosauria: Elasmosauridae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Northeast Queensland", ''Memoirs of the Queensland Museum'' 49(2): 713-731 Kear (2005) disagreed with this view and followed the interpretation by Welles (1962), rendering the genus to be an indeterminate elasmosaurid. Kronosaurus hunt1DB

Notes

References

* Long, J.A. 1998. ''Dinosaurs of Australia and New Zealand''. UNSW Press. {{Taxonbar, from=Q920815 Early Cretaceous plesiosaurs Early Cretaceous reptiles of Australia Elasmosaurids Plesiosaurs of Oceania Fossil taxa described in 1960 Sauropterygian genera

See also

Notes

References