''Teleidosaurus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of carnivorous

metriorhynchoid Metriorhynchoidea is an extinct superfamily of thalattosuchian crocodyliforms from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous (Toarcian - Valanginian, possibly as late as early Aptian) of Europe, North America and South America. Metriorhynch ...

crocodyliform Crocodyliformes is a clade of crurotarsan archosaurs, the group often traditionally referred to as "crocodilians". They are the first members of Crocodylomorpha to possess many of the features that define later relatives. They are the only pseudo ...

from

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 163.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations co ...

(late Bajocian to early

Bathonian In the geologic timescale the Bathonian is an age and stage of the Middle Jurassic. It lasted from approximately 168.3 Ma to around 166.1 Ma (million years ago). The Bathonian Age succeeds the Bajocian Age and precedes the Callovian Age. Strat ...

stage) deposits of

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

.Wilkinson LE, Young MT, Benton MJ. 2008. A new metriorhynchid crocodilian (Mesoeucrocodylia: Thalattosuchia) from the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic) of Wiltshire, UK. ''Palaeontology'' 51 (6): 1307-1333. The name ''Teleidosaurus'' means "Complete lizard", and is derived from the Greek '- ("complete") and -''sauros'' ("lizard").

Discovery

The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

was named ''Teleosaurus Calvadosii'' icby

Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps (17 January 179417 January 1867) was a French naturalist and paleontologist. His son, Eugène Eudes-Deslongchamps (1830–1889), was also a paleontologist. He was born at Caen in Normandy. His parents, though poo ...

in 1866;Eudes-Deslongchamps, J.A. 1866. Description d'une espèce inédite de Téléosaure des environs de Caen, le ''Teleosaurus calvadosii''. ''Bulletin Soc. Linn. Normandie'' 2 (1): 112-118. however, it was his son,

Eugène Eudes-Deslongchamps Eugène Eudes-Deslongchamps (10 March 1830 – 21 December 1889) was a French paleontologist and naturalist born in Caen, the son of paleontologist Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps (1794–1867). He died at Château Matthieu, Calvados. Arou ...

who erected the generic name ''Teleidosaurus'' later in 1869 Eudes-Deslongchamps, E. 1869. Notice sur les animaux fossiles de la famille des Téléosauriens recueillis en Normandie. ''Mémoires Acad. Imp. Sci. et Arts et Belles-Lettres'': 31-80. for ''Teleosaurus calvadosii''. ''Teleidosaurus joberti'' from the Great Oolite Formation is a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

of ''T. calvadosii''. ''T. calvadosii'' is known from the

plastotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

NHM R.2681, a complete

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

and

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

and from NHM 32612, the plastotype of ''T. joberti'', fragmentary right mandible. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

lost during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Classification

The only species within ''Teleidosaurus'' is the

''T. calvadosii''. Both ''T. bathonicus'' and ''T. gaudryi'' where referred to '' Eoneustes''. All species are from Calvados, Normandy of

. Recent

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

analyses do not support the

monophyly In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic grou ...

of ''Teleidosaurus''.Mueller-Töwe IJ. 2005. Phylogenetic relationships of the Thalattosuchia. ''Zitteliana'' A45: 211–213.

References

Fossil taxa described in 1869 Middle Jurassic crocodylomorphs Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera Prehistoric marine crocodylomorphs Fossils of France Thalattosuchians {{paleo-archosaur-stub