Sapheosaurus on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''Sapheosaurus'' was an extinct genus of Late Jurassic 
sphenodont
Rhynchocephalia (; ) is an order (biology), order of lizard-like reptiles that includes only one living species, the tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') of New Zealand. Despite its current lack of diversity, during the Mesozoic rhynchocephalians w ...
. Its skull was longer and narrower than that of '' Homoeosaurus''. It was classified as a genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of sapheosaur
Sapheosaurs are an 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 a group co ...
by Michael Benton
Michael James Benton One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 8 April 1956) is a British palaeontologist, and professor of vertebrate palaeontology in the School of Earth Sciences ...
in 1985. It reached a length of 70 cm from snout to tail. ''Sapheosaurus'' belongs to the clade Sapheosauridae, that also includes other taxa like ''Kallimodon
''Kallimodon'' is a genus of sphenodont from the Late Jurassic of Bavaria, southern Germany.
Systematics
''Kallimodon'' was originally described as a species of '' Homoeosaurus'' by Karl von Zittel in 1887. However, in 1963 it was renamed ''Kal ...
''. It is believed to be one of two aquatic sphenodont lineages, with Pleurosauridae being the other.Marc E. H. Jones, Skull shape and feeding strategy in Sphenodon and other Rhynchocephalia (Diapsida: Lepidosauria), Article in Journal of Morphology 269(8):945-66 · August 2008 DOI: 10.1002/jmor.10634 · Source: PubMed
Species
''Sapheosaurus laticeps'' (also known as '' Piocormus'') differed from ''Sapheosaurus thiollierei'' by its smaller size and morevertebra
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characterist ...
e. ''S. thiollierei'' had 22 back and neck vertebrae, while ''S. laticeps'' had 26. Also, the two differ in relative limb length. ''S. laticeps'' lived in France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
and Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
.
References
Sphenodontia Extinct animals of Europe Prehistoric reptile genera {{paleo-reptile-stub