''Honghesaurus'' is an extinct

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 ...

pachypleurosaur Pachypleurosauria is an extinct clade of primitive sauropterygian reptiles from the Triassic period. Pachypleurosaurs vaguely resembled aquatic lizards, with elongate forms ranging in size from , with small heads, long necks, paddle-like limbs, a ...

from the

Anisian In the geologic timescale, the Anisian is the lower stage (stratigraphy), stage or earliest geologic age, age of the Middle Triassic series (stratigraphy), series or geologic epoch, epoch and lasted from million years ago until million years ag ...

-age

Guanling Formation The Guanling Formation is a Middle Triassic (Anisian or Pelsonian in the regional chronostratigraphy) geologic Formation (geology), formation in southwestern China. Geology The formation encompasses two members. The first member is primarily c ...

of China. The type specimen measures about in total body length.

Classification

The cladogram below follows Xu and colleagues (2022), when they used ''

Youngina ''Youngina'' (named after John Young (1823–1900)) is an extinct genus of diapsid reptile from the Late Permian Beaufort Group ('' Tropidostoma''-'' Dicynodon'' zones) of the Karoo Red Beds of South Africa. This, and a few related forms, mak ...

'' as a reference point for rooting the tree. Using a selection of

placodont Placodonts (" tablet teeth") are an extinct order of marine reptiles that lived during the Triassic period, becoming extinct at the end of the period. They were part of Sauropterygia, the group that includes plesiosaurs. Placodonts were generall ...

s resulted in a less resolved topology.

References

Triassic sauropterygians Pachypleurosauria Fossil taxa described in 2022 Anisian life {{triassic-reptile-stub