''Isfjordosaurus'' is an extinct genus of
ichthyopterygian marine reptile
Marine reptiles are reptiles which have become secondarily adapted for an aquatic or semiaquatic life in a marine environment. Only about 100 of the 12,000 extant reptile species and subspecies are classed as marine reptiles, including mari ...
that lived during the
Early Triassic
The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic Period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between 251.9 Ma and Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic Series, which ...
. Fossils have been found on the island of
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...
, part of the
Svalbard
Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...
archipelago off the northern coast of Norway. It was formally described by Ryosuke Motani in 1999
and contains the species ''Isfjordosaurus minor''.
See also
*
List of ichthyosaurs
This list of ichthyosauromorphs is a comprehensive listing of all Genus, genera that have ever been included in the clade Ichthyosauromorpha, excluding purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also genera that ar ...
*
Timeline of ichthyosaur research
This timeline of ichthyosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the History of paleontology, history of paleontology focused on the ichthyosauromorphs, a group of secondarily aquatic marine reptiles whose later members superficially ...
References
External links
''Isfjordosaurus''at www.biolib.cz.
Fossils of Svalbard
Early Triassic reptiles of Europe
Ichthyosauromorph genera
Olenekian life
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