Actiosaurus

Actiosaurus
Temporal range: Late Triassic
Actiosaurus gaudryi humerus (anterior view), Sauvage (1883).
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Choristodera
Genus: Actiosaurus
Species: A. gaudryi
Binomial name
Actiosaurus gaudryi
Sauvage, 1883

Actiosaurus (meaning "coast lizard") is an extinct genus of reptile first described by Henri Sauvage in 1883.[1] The type species is A. gaudryi (commonly misspelled A. gaudrii after Boulenger[2]). Little is known of it, and it is considered a nomen dubium. Actiosaurus was originally described as a dinosaur in 1883 and was reinterpreted as an ichthyosaur in 1908. Actiosaurus may instead represent the remains of a choristodere.[3] Fischer et al. (in press) considered A. gaudryi to be a species inquirenda, and noted the similarity of its bones to the limb bones of choristoderes.[4]

See also

References

  1. Sauvage, H. (1883). "Recherches sur les reptiles trouves dans l'etage Rhetien des environs d'Autun". Annales des Sciences Geologiques 14 (6, Article 3) : 1–44.
  2. Boulenger, G. A. (1883). Page 6 in "Reptilia and Batrachia". Rye, E. C. (ed.). The Zoological Record for 1883. Record of Zoological Literature 20.
  3. Mortimer, M. (13 June 2010). "Actiosaurus is a choristodere not an ichthyosaur". The Theropod Database Blog. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  4. Valentin Fischer, Henri Cappetta, Peggy Vincent, Géraldine Garcia, Stijn Goolaerts, Jeremy E. Martin, Daniel Roggero and Xavier Valentin (2014). "Ichthyosaurs from the French Rhaetian indicate a severe turnover across the Triassic–Jurassic boundary". Naturwissenschaften. in press. doi:10.1007/s00114-014-1242-7.

External links

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