''Hypuronector'' is a

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 ...

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 ...

drepanosaur reptile from the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch a ...

Lockatong Formation of

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. The

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of the name translates as "deep-tailed swimmer from the lake", in reference to its assumed aquatic habits hypothesized by its discoverers. ''Hypuronector'' was related to the arboreal '' Megalancosaurus''. It was a small animal, estimated to be only long in life. So far dozens of specimens of ''Hypuronector'' are known, though scientists have not found any complete skeletons. This makes attempts to reconstruct ''Hypuronectors body or lifestyle highly speculative and controversial.

Paleobiology

Despite their evolutionary relationship, it has been suggested by some scientists that ''Hypuronector'' may have had a different

ecological niche In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. Three variants of ecological niche are described by It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of Resource (biology), resources an ...

than other drepanosaurs. It has long been accepted that ''Megalancosaurus'' was an arboreal chameleon-like animal. ''Hypuronector'' has inversely been suggested to be aquatic due to its deep, paddle-like tail and the fact that its remains were found in an ancient

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

bottom. However, several studies on its limb morphology, as well as the rather delicate tail

vertebrae Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...

without evidence of extensive caudal musculature, rule out an aquatic hypothesis, and it was likely arboreal like other drepanosaurs. Perhaps more extremely, it has been suggested to be a glider or flyer, due to the limb proportions, particularly the elongated

forelimbs A forelimb or front limb is one of the paired articulated appendages ( limbs) attached on the cranial (anterior) end of a terrestrial tetrapod vertebrate's torso. With reference to quadrupeds, the term foreleg or front leg is often used inst ...

. These are consistent with an animal with patagia, like a

flying squirrel Flying squirrels (scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini) are a tribe (biology), tribe of 50 species of squirrels in the family (biology), family Squirrel, Sciuridae. Despite their name, they are not in fact capable of full flight i ...

References

External links

Hairy Museum of Natural History
Drepanosauromorpha Late Triassic reptiles of North America Animal flight Fossil taxa described in 2001 Prehistoric reptile genera {{triassic-reptile-stub