''Platypterygius'' is a historically

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

genus of

platypterygiine Platypterygiinae is an extinct subfamily of ophthalmosaurid thunnosaur ichthyosaurs from the early Late Jurassic to the early Late Cretaceous (Kimmeridgian - Cenomanian) of Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Currently, the ...

ichthyosaur Ichthyosauria is an order of large extinct marine reptiles sometimes referred to as "ichthyosaurs", although the term is also used for wider clades in which the order resides. Ichthyosaurians thrived during much of the Mesozoic era; based on fo ...

from the

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 ...

period. It was historically used as a

wastebasket taxon Wastebasket taxon (also called a wastebin taxon, dustbin taxon or catch-all taxon) is a term used by some taxonomists to refer to a taxon that has the purpose of classifying organisms that do not fit anywhere else. They are typically defined by e ...

, and most species within ''Platypterygius'' likely are undiagnostic at the genus or species level, or represent distinct genera, even being argued as invalid. While fossils referred to ''Platypterygius'' have been found throughout different

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

s, the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

specimen Specimen may refer to: Science and technology * Sample (material), a limited quantity of something which is intended to be similar to and represent a larger amount * Biological specimen or biospecimen, an organic specimen held by a biorepository f ...

was found in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Description

As ''Platypterygius'' contains multiple species not especially close to each other, little can be said in terms of shared characteristics. According to an analysis by Fischer (2012), all anatomical features used to unify ''Platypterygius'' species are either not actually present in each species, or much more widespread among unrelated ophthalmosaurs. Generally, species referred to this genus were large bodied macropredators based on their robust dentition. This is also supported by ''P. australis'' having been found with remains of hatchling protostegid

sea turtles Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...

and

enantiornithine The Enantiornithes, also known as enantiornithines or enantiornitheans in literature, are a group of extinct avialans ("birds" in the broad sense), the most abundant and diverse group known from the Mesozoic era. Almost all retained teeth and c ...

s (possibly ''

Nanantius ''Nanantius'' is a genus of extinct enantiornithean avialan ("bird" in the broad sense of the word) known from the Early Cretaceous (Albian, c. 100–112 mya) of Australia. Specimens and species The only valid species of ''Nanantius'' is ''N ...

'') in association with

actinopterygian Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of skin ...

fish in its guts. In 1998, Arkhangelsky estimated that ''P. platydactylus'' was about long, while ''"P." americanus'' was about long. In 2010, Zammit and colleagues estimated that ''"P." australis'' was about long.

Discovery and species

The type species of ''Platypterygius'' was described in 1922 based on remains found in upper

Aptian The Aptian is an age (geology), age in the geologic timescale or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early or Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), S ...

strata around

Hannover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

that were previously described as a species of ''

Ichthyosaurus ''Ichthyosaurus'' (derived from Greek () meaning 'fish' and () meaning 'lizard') is a genus of ichthyosaurs from the Early Jurassic (Hettangian - Pliensbachian) of Europe (Belgium, England, Germany and Portugal). Some specimens of the ichthy ...

'' (''I. platydactylus'') in 1907 by Ferdinand Broili. These remains however were not adequately described and to complicate matters further, destroyed during

World War 2 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilisin ...

. In the time after its discovery however ''Platypterygius'' has become a catch-all genus for Cretaceous ichthyosaurs, creating the misconstrued view of post-Jurassic ichthyosaurs as being a single global genus lacking in diversity. Later research conducted in the 2000s and 2010s has repeatedly shown this to be false, with all of the autapomorphies previously used to define ''Platypterygius'' either not being present in all assigned species or also being present in other ophthalmosaurids. As the holotype was destroyed, a redescription of the material attempting to identify valid autapomorphies is out of the question and leaves the genus in a problematic state. Furthermore, the inclusion of later described genera of Cretaceous, ''platypterygiine'' ichthyosaurs has shown ''Platypterygius'' to be paraphyletic, with the different species not clading closely to one another. Subsequently, many redescriptions of referred ''Platypterygius'' species have found them to be their own distinct genera. One notable attempt at revising ''Platypterygius'' was conducted by Arkhangel'sky in 1998, who split the genus into three new subgenera. ''Longirostria'' (including the Australian ''"P." longmani'', a synonym of ''"P." australis'', and the Argentinian ''"P." hauthali''), ''Tenuirostria'' (''"P." americanus'') and ''Pervushovisaurus'' (which included the newly described ''"P." bannovkensis''). Both ''Platypterygius platydactylus'',''"P." kiprianoffi'' and ''"P." hercynicus'' were placed in the subgenus ''Platypterygius''. ''"Platypterygius" bannovkensis'' was eventually elevated to its own genus ''Pervushovisaurus'' in 2014, utilizing Arkhangel'sky's proposed subgenus name and ''"P." campylodon'' was also assigned to this genus by a study published in 2016. ''"P." kiprianoffi'' was also assigned to ''P. campylodon'' (now ''Pervushovisaurus''). ''

Simbirskiasaurus ''Simbirskiasaurus'' is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur from the Early Cretaceous (early Barremian) of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia.Valentin Fischer, Maxim S. Arkhangelsky, Darren Naish, Ilya M. Stenshin, Gleb N. Uspensky and Pascal Godefroit (2014) ...

'' was originally described in 1985 and later sunk into ''Platypterygius'' before being declared distinct in the same paper as ''Pervushovisaurus''. ''"Platypterygius" ochevi'', described in 2008 by Arkhangel'sky ''et al.'', was found to be a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of '' Maiaspondylus cantabrigiensis'' and in 2021 ''"Platypterygius" sachicarum'' was described by Cortés ''et al.'' as '' Kyhytysuka sachicarum''. It is argued that the inclusion of oldest species ''"P." hauthali'' requires reinvestigation, for it lacks a skull to attribute. Because of this, recent analyses on ichthyosaur classification neglect this species. In 2024, ''"P." hauthali'' was reclassified back into the original genus, ''

Myobradypterygius ''Myobradypterygius'' is an extinct genus of ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian-Hauterivian) of Argentina and possibly also Chile. One species is known, ''M. hauthali'',Huene, F. von. (1927). Beitrag zur Kenntnis ma ...

''.

Accepted species

* ''Platypterygius platydactylus'' * ''Platypterygius americanus'' (=''Tenuirostria'') * ''Platypterygius australis'' (=''Longirostria'') * ''Platypterygius hercynicus''

Formerly assigned species

* '' Pervushovisaurus bannovkensis'' * '' Pervushovisaurus campylodon'' * '' Simbirskiasaurus birjukovi'' * '' Plutoniosaurus bedengensis'' * '' Maiaspondylus cantabrigiensis'' (

senior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of ''Platypterygius ochevi'' ) * '' Kyhytysuka sachicarum'' (formerly ''Platypterygius sachicarum'' ) * '' Myobradypterygius hauthali''

Classification

The following cladogram shows the internal relationships of ophthalmosaurian ichthyosaurs according to an analysis performed by Zverkov and Jacobs (2020) which shows that ''P. americanus'' is too distantly related compared to the other three species.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Platypterygius
{{Portal bar, Paleontology Ichthyosauromorph genera Early Cretaceous ichthyosaurs Late Cretaceous ichthyosaurs Hauterivian genus first appearances Barremian genera Aptian genera Albian genera Cenomanian genus extinctions Cretaceous reptiles of Asia Cretaceous Russia Fossils of Russia Cretaceous reptiles of Australia Fossils of Australia Fossils of New Zealand Cretaceous reptiles of Europe Cretaceous France Fossils of France Cretaceous Germany Fossils of Germany Mesozoic Switzerland Fossils of Switzerland Cretaceous reptiles of North America Cretaceous Canada Fossils of Canada Cretaceous United States Fossils of the United States Early Cretaceous reptiles of South America Cretaceous Venezuela Fossils of Venezuela Cretaceous Colombia Fossils of Colombia Fossil taxa described in 1922 Taxa named by Friedrich von Huene Ophthalmosauridae