Bathyspondylus

Bathyspondylus
Temporal range: 155–150 Ma
↓

Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian)

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Sauropterygia
Order: Plesiosauria
Family: incertae sedis
Genus: Bathyspondylus
Delair 1982
Species
  • Bathyspondylus swindoniensis (type) (Delair 1982)

Bathyspondylus is an extinct genus of plesiosaur. It was first described in 1982 from a specimen originally found in 1774, now housed at the Devizes Museum.[1] Because it is known only from its fossil vertebrae (and so few of those have been recovered), paleontologists are not entirely sure of the taxonomy of Bathyspondylus; the family it belongs to is not currently known.[2]

The type, and only known, species of Bathyspondylus is Bathyspondylus swindoniensis, which was described from the same material as its genus.

Etymology

The genus name Bathyspondylus is a compound of two Greek roots: βαθυς (bathys) 'deep' and σπονδυλος (spondylos) 'vertebra'.[3] It can thus be translated as "deep-vertebrae".

The species name B. swindoniensis refers to the town of Swindon in Wiltshire, near which the holotype specimen was discovered.[3]

Description

Bathyspondylus had centra set fairly deep in the vertebrae relative to its length, as its name (the Greek words for deep-vertebrae) would suggest.[1] The vertebrae themselves are short antero-posteriorly and can be flat or concave on their terminal faces.[1] The holotype specimen, from 1774, appears to have features of both pliosauroids and plesiosauroids incorporated into its bones.[1]

Distribution

A map of Wiltshire, England. The first Bathyspondylus fossils were discovered near Swindon in the north.

Bathyspondylus lived during the Kimmeridgian faunal stage of the Jurassic period, which occurred roughly 155 to 150 million years ago. The first of its fossils came from deposits near Swindon in Wiltshire, England.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "dinosauria.com entry on Bathyspondylus". Archived from the original on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  2. ↑ Cladistic Analysis of the Plesiosauria (Reptilia: Sauropterygia)Adam Stuart Smith, Supervised by M. J. Benton. University of Bristol, Department of Earth Sciences. September 2003. pg. 18
  3. 1 2 "plesiosaur.com entry on Bathyspondylus". Retrieved 2008-09-18.

External links

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