Nothosaurus
| Nothosaurus Temporal range:MiddletoLate Triassic
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| Nothosaurus marchicusskeleton restoration inBerlin | |
Scientific classification
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | †Sauropterygia |
| Order: | †Nothosauroidea |
| Family: | †Nothosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Nothosaurinae Nopcsa, 1923 |
| Genus: | †Nothosaurus Münster, 1834 |
| Type species | |
| †Nothosaurus mirabilis Münster, 1834
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| Species | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Genus synonymy
Species synonymy
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Nothosaurus('false lizard', from the Ancient Greekνόθος,nothos,'illegitimate' andσαῦρος,sauros,'lizard') is an extinct genus ofsauropterygianreptilefrom theTriassicperiod, approximately 240–210 million years ago, with fossils being distributed throughout the formerTethys Ocean,fromNorth AfricaandEuropetoChina.It is the best known member of thenothosaurorder.
Description
[edit]
Nothosauruswas a semi-oceanicanimal which probably had a lifestyle similar to that of today'sseals.It was about 4 metres (13 ft), with long, webbed toes and possibly a fin on its tail.[1]However, some species such asN. zhangiandN. giganteuswere larger, up to 5–7 metres (16–23 ft).[2]When swimming,Nothosauruswould use its tail, legs, and webbed feet to propel and steer it through the water. The skull was broad and flat, with long jaws, lined with needleteeth,it probably caught fish and other marine creatures. Trackways attributed, partly by process of elimination, to a nothosaur, that were reported fromYunnan,China in June 2014, were interpreted as the paddle impressions left as the animals dug into soft seabed with rowing motions of their paddles, churning up hidden benthic creatures that they snapped up.[3]Once caught, few animals would be able to shake themselves free from the mouth ofNothosaurus.
In many respects its body structure resembled that of the much laterplesiosaurs,but it was not as well adapted to an aquatic environment. It is thought that one branch of the nothosaurs may have evolved intopliosaurssuch asLiopleurodon,a short-necked plesiosaur that grew up to 6.4 metres (21 ft), and the long-neckedCryptoclidus,a fish eater with a neck as long as 1.3 metres (4.3 ft).
Species
[edit]
There are nearly a dozen known species ofNothosaurus.The type species isN. mirabilis,named in 1834 from theGermanicMuschelkalk.Other species includeN. giganteus(previously known asParanothosaurus) fromOsnabrück,Germany;[4]N. juvenilis,also from Germany;[5]N. edingeraefrom the Upper Muschelkalk and LowerKeuper;[6]N. haasiandN. tchernovifromMakhtesh Ramon,Israel;[7][8]N. cymatosauroidesfrom theSpanishMuschelkalk;[9]N. jagisteusfrom the Upper Muschelkalk ofHohenlohe,Germany;[10]andN. youngi,N. yangjuanensis(and its junior synonymN. rostellatus) and the recently namedN. zhangifromGuizhou,China.[11][12][13][14]Several species have been described from the Lower Muschelkalk inWinterswijk,theNetherlands,includingN. marchicus[15](and itsjunior synonym[16]N. winterswijkensis[15]) andN. winkelhorsti.[17]Recently, the long considered lost type material ofN. schimperiMeyer, 1842 from the Lower Muschelkalk of Soultz-les-Bains, Alsace, France, has been rediscovered and a lectotype has been designated.[18]
Klein and Albers (2009) conducted aphylogenetic analysis,but did not test themonophylyofNothosaurus,as other nothosaurids were not included in their analysis.[17]
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Several other species have been named but are now generally considered invalid. One such species,N. procerus,is now considered ajunior subjective synonymofN. marchicus.[19][20]Other species now considered junior synonyms ofN. marchicusincludeN. crassus,N. oldenburgi,N. raabi,N. schroderi,N. venustusand the recently namedN. winterswijkensis.[16]Junior synonyms ofN. giganteus,the second largestNothosaurusspecies, includeN. andriani,N. angustifronis,N. aduncidens,N. baruthicusandN. chelydrops.[14]
A species levelphylogenetic analysisof Nothosauridae was performed by Liuet al.(2014), and included all known valid species of the family andNothosaurusapart fromLariosaurus stensioi(type ofMicronothosaurus),Nothosaurus cymatosauroides,andCeresiosaurus lanzi.Due to the inclusion of other nothosaurids other thanNothosaurus,themonophylyofNothosauruswas tested for the first time. The analysis found bothLariosaurusandNothosaurusto bepolyphyleticin regard to each other and all the other genera of the family, making a systematic revision of these two genera necessary. Below, their results are shown with type species of named nothosaurid genera noted.[14]Later, in 2017, the speciesN. juvenilis,N. youngi,andN. winkelhorstiwere formally moved toLariosaurus.[21]
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References
[edit]- Parker, Steve. Dinosaurus: the complete guide to dinosaurs. Firefly Books Inc, 2003. Pg. 384
- ^Palmer, D., ed. (1999).The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals.London: Marshall Editions. p. 72.ISBN978-1-84028-152-1.
- ^Liu, Jun (27 November 2014)."A gigantic nothosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Middle Triassic of SW China and its implications for the Triassic biotic recovery".Scientific Reports.4:7142.Bibcode:2014NatSR...4E7142L.doi:10.1038/srep07142.PMC4245812.PMID25429609.
- ^(LiveScience) Tia Ghose, "Ancient long-necked 'sea monsters' rowed their way to prey", reporting the scientific article published inNature Communications11 June 2014: accessed 28 November 2014.
- ^Diedrich, C. (2009)."The vertebrates of the Anisian/Ladinian boundary (Middle Triassic) from Bissendorf (NW Germany) and their contribution to the anatomy, palaeoecology, and palaeobiogeography of the Germanic Basin reptiles".Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.273(1): 1–16.Bibcode:2009PPP...273....1D.doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.10.026.
- ^Rieppel, O. (1994). "The status of the sauropterygian reptileNothosaurus juvenilisfrom the Middle Triassic of Germany ".Palaeontology.37:733–745.
- ^Rieppel, O.; Wild, R. (1994). "Nothosaurus edingeraeSchultze, 1970: diagnosis of the species and comments on its stratigraphical occurrence ".Stuttgarter Beiträge für Naturkunde, Serie B.
- ^Rieppel, O.; Mazin, J.-M.; Tchernov, E. (1997). "Speciation along rifting continental margins: a new Nothosaur from the Negev (Israël)".Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Série IIA.325(12): 991–997.Bibcode:1997CRASE.325..991R.doi:10.1016/s1251-8050(97)82380-4.
- ^Rieppel, O.; Mazin, J.-M.; Tchernov, E. (1999). "Sauropterygia from the Middle Triassic of Makhtesh Ramon, Negev, Israel".Fieldiana.1(40).
- ^Rieppel, O.; Hagdorn, H. (1998). "Fossil reptiles from the Spanish Muschelkalk (mont-ral and alcover, province Tarragona)".Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology.13(1): 77–97.doi:10.1080/08912969809386575.
- ^Shang, Q.-H. (2007). "New information on the dentition and tooth replacement ofNothosaurus(Reptilia: Sauropterygia) ".Palaeoworld.16(1–3): 254–263.doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2007.05.007.
- ^Li, J.; Rieppel, O. (2004). "A new nothosaur from Middle Triassic of Guizhou, China".Vertebrata PalAsiatica.42(1): 1–12.
- ^Jiang, W.; Maisch, M. W.; Hao, W.; Sun, Y.; Sun, Z. (2006). "Nothosaurus yangjuanensisn. sp. (Reptilia, Sauropterygia, Nothosauridae) from the middle Anisian (Middle Triassic) of Guizhou, southwestern China ".Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte.2006(5): 257–276.doi:10.1127/njgpm/2006/2006/257.
- ^Shang, Q.-H. (2006). "A new species of Nothosaurus from the early Middle Triassic of Guizhou, China".Vertebrata PalAsiatica.44(3): 237–249.
- ^abcJun Liu; Shi-xue Hu; Olivier Rieppel; Da-yong Jiang; Michael J. Benton; Neil P. Kelley; Jonathan C. Aitchison; Chang-yong Zhou; Wen Wen; Jin-yuan Huang; Tao Xie; Tao Lv (2014)."A gigantic nothosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Middle Triassic of SW China and its implication for the Triassic biotic recovery".Scientific Reports.4:Article number 7142.Bibcode:2014NatSR...4E7142L.doi:10.1038/srep07142.PMC4245812.PMID25429609.
- ^abAlbers, P. C. H. (2005). "A new specimen ofNothosaurus marchicuswith features that relate the taxon toNothosaurus winterswijkensis".Vertebrate Palaeontology.3(1): 1–7.
- ^abAlbers, P.C.H. (August 2011)."New Nothosaurus skulls from the Lower Muschelkalk of the western Lower Saxony Basin (Winterswijk, the Netherlands) shed new light on the status ofNothosaurus winterswijkensis".Netherlands Journal of Geosciences.90(1): 15–22.doi:10.1017/S0016774600000639.S2CID86305887.
- ^abKlein, N.; Albers, P. C. H. (2009)."A new species of the sauropsid reptileNothosaurusfrom the Lower Muschelkalk of the western Germanic Basin, Winterswijk, The Netherlands ".Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.54(4): 589–598.doi:10.4202/app.2008.0083.
- ^Brignon, A. (2021). "L'histoire de la paléontologie des vertébrés dans le Trias alsacien jusqu'au début du XXe siècle".Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire naturelle et d'Ethnographie de Colmar.77(8): 70–136.
- ^Schroder, H. (1914). "Wirbeltiere der Riidersdorfer Trias".Abhandlungen der Preussischen Geologischen Landesanstalt.Neue Folge.65:1–98.
- ^Rieppel, O.; Wild, R. (1996). "A revision of the genusNothosaurus(Reptilia. Sauropterygia) from the Germanic Triassic with comments on the status ofConchiosaurus clavatus".Fieldiana.1(34): 1–82.
- ^Lin, W.-B.; Jiang, D.-Y.; Rieppel, O.; Motani, R.; Ji, C.; Tintori, A.; Sun, Z.-Y.; Zhou, Min (2017). "A new specimen ofLariosaurus xingyiensis(Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Ladinian (Middle Triassic) Zhuganpo Member, Falang Formation, Guizhou, China ".Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.37(2): e1278703.doi:10.1080/02724634.2017.1278703.S2CID90181915.
General references
[edit]- Dixon, Dougal (2006).The Complete Book of Dinosaurs.Hermes House.
- Haines, Tim, and Paul Chambers.The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life.Pg. 64. Canada: Firefly Books Ltd., 2006
