''Eurysaurus'' (meaning "wide lizard") is an extinct genus of plesiosaur, originally classed as a

nothosaur Nothosaurs (order Nothosauroidea) were Triassic marine sauropterygian reptiles that may have lived like seals of today, catching food in water but coming ashore on rocks and beaches. They averaged about in length, with a long body and tail.F. v ...

, from the

Early Jurassic The Early Jurassic Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event, 201.3 Ma ...

of Echenoz-la-Meline,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, named in 1878. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

material, consisting of a

cranium The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, ...

, teeth and five

vertebrae The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...

, is now lost.Gaudry, a. 1878. Sur un grand reptile fossil (the ''Eurysaurus raincourti''). Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des Séances de l ' Académie des Sciences, Paris, 86: 1031–1033. The type species is ''E. raincourti'', and a second species, ''E. schafferi'', was named in 1924 but it has since been absorbed into the unrelated genus '' Germanosaurus''.O. Rieppel. 1997. Revision of the sauropterygian reptile genus ''

Cymatosaurus ''Cymatosaurus'' is an extinct genus of pistosauroid or nothosauriform sauropterygian. It is known to have been alive from the Early Triassic to the Middle Triassic period (latest Olenekian to Anisian stages) of Germany and they seem to origina ...

'' v. Fritsch, 1894, and the relationships of ''Germanosaurus'' Nopcsa, 1928, from the Middle Triassic of Europe. ''Fieldiana: Geology, new series''

History

The holotype, first described in 1878 by

Albert Gaudry Jean Albert Gaudry (16 September 1827 – 27 November 1908) was a French geologist and palaeontologist. He was born at St Germain-en-Laye, and was educated at the Catholic Collège Stanislas de Paris. He was a notable proponent of theistic evolut ...

, has since been lost. A new study based essentially on illustrations of the type material by Noè (2001) has considered ''Eurysaurus'' a ''

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...

'', probably congeneric with the

pliosaur Pliosauroidea is an extinct clade of plesiosaurs, known from the earliest Jurassic to early Late Cretaceous. They are best known for the subclade Thalassophonea, which contained crocodile-like short-necked forms with large heads and massive t ...

Simolestes ''Simolestes'' (meaning "hearkening thief") is an extinct pliosaurid genus that lived in the Middle to Late Jurassic. The type specimen, BMNH R. 3319 is an almost complete but crushed skeleton diagnostic to ''Simolestes vorax'', dating back to ...

''.Noè, LF 2001. A taxonomic and functional study of the Callovian (Middle Jurassic) Plesiosauroidea (Reptilia, Sauropterygia). ''Ph.D. thesis, University of Derby, Derby, UK.'' However, due to the stratigraphic difference of the two forms, it is possible that ''Eurysaurus'' was a separate genus in its own right.

Classification

Gaudry in 1878 originally classified ''Eurysaurus'' as a

. In 2001, Noè reclassified ''Eurysaurus'' as a plesiosaur, possibly belonging to the

Pliosauroidea Pliosauroidea is an extinct clade of plesiosaurs, known from the earliest Jurassic to early Late Cretaceous. They are best known for the subclade Thalassophonea, which contained crocodile-like short-necked forms with large heads and massive to ...

References

Early Jurassic plesiosaurs of Europe Fossils of France Fossil taxa described in 1878 Sinemurian genus first appearances Pliensbachian genus extinctions {{plesiosaur-stub

History

Classification

See also

References