''Homoeosaurus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of rhynchocephalian

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

, known from the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...

-earliest

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

of Europe, with specimens being reported from France ( Canjuers Lagerstatte), England (

Purbeck Group The Purbeck Group is an Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous lithostratigraphy, lithostratigraphic group (stratigraphy), group (a sequence of rock strata) in south-east England. The name is derived from the district known as the Isle of Purbeck in ...

) and Germany ( Solnhofen Limestone). Several species have been described within the genus, based on varying proportions of the limb bones to the body length based on the presacral vertebrae. Specimen C.M.6438 of ''H. maximiliani'' from Germany has a total length of around , with a skull length of about . In comparison to other rhynchocephalians, the limbs are proportionally long. Recent studies have classified ''Homoeosaurus'' as a member of Neosphenodontia, with some studies including it as part of the clade Leptorhynchia, also including

sapheosaur Sapheosaurs are an Extinction, extinct group of rhynchocephalian reptiles from the Late Jurassic period. "Sapheosaurs" is an informal name for a group of rhynchocephalians closely related to the genus ''Sapheosaurus''. It was first recognized as ...

s, pleurosaurs, '' Kallimodon'' and '' Vadasaurus.'' Despite being found in aquatic deposits, it is suggested to have been terrestrial. It is thought to have been a

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they ar ...

insectivore file:Common brown robberfly with prey.jpg, A Asilidae, robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivore, carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the Entomophagy ...

. One specimen was found as stomach contents of the fish '' Belonostomus.''

References

Jurassic lepidosaurs Rhynchocephalia Solnhofen fauna Late Jurassic reptiles of Europe Prehistoric reptile genera Fossil taxa described in 1847 {{jurassic-reptile-stub