Meyerasaurus

Meyerasaurus Temporal range: Early Jurassic, 183–180 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
The holotype in the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	†Sauropterygia
Order:	†Plesiosauria
Clade:	†Neoplesiosauria
Family:	†Rhomaleosauridae
Genus:	†Meyerasaurus Smith & Vincent, 2010
Species:	† M. victor
Binomial name
Meyerasaurus victor (Fraas, 1910 [originally Plesiosaurus])
Synonyms
Plesiosaurus victor Fraas, 1910 Thaumatosaurus victor Fraas, 1910 Eurycleidus victor Zittel, 1932 Rhomaleosaurus victor Tarlo, 1960

Meyerasaurus is an extinct genus of rhomaleosaurid known from Holzmaden, Baden-Württemberg of southeastern Germany.^[1]

Description

Restoration

Meyerasaurus is known from the holotype SMNS 12478, articulated and complete skeleton which preserved the skull, exposed in ventral view. The skull has a length of 37 cm (15 in), and the animal is about 3.35 m (11.0 ft) in length. It was collected from the Harpoceras elegantulum-falciferum ammonoid subzones, Harpoceras falcifer zone, of the famous Posidonien-Schiefer lagerstätte (Posidonia Shale), dating to the early Toarcian stage of the Early Jurassic, about 183-180 million years ago.^[1]

Etymology

Meyerasaurus was first named by Adam S. Smith and Peggy Vincent in 2010 and the type species is Meyerasaurus victor. It was originally classified as a species of Plesiosaurus, later as the second named species of Thaumatosaurus (defunct name, meaning "wonder reptile") and ultimately as a species of Eurycleidus or Rhomaleosaurus. The generic name honors the German palaeontologist Hermann von Meyer for proposing the generic name Thaumatosaurus.^[1]

Classification

3D animation showing the most likely swimming motions

The cladogram below shows Meyerasaurus phylogenetic position among other plesiosaurs, following Benson et al. (2012).^[2]

Plesiosauria	Neoplesiosauria  Pliosauridae Plesiosauroidea  Rhomaleosauridae  Stratesaurus taylori Macroplata tenuiceps Avalonnectes arturi Eurycleidus arcuatus Meyerasaurus victor Maresaurus coccai Atychodracon megacephalus Archaeonectrus rostratus Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni Rhomaleosaurus thorntoni Rhomaleosaurus zetlandicus

See also

• List of plesiosaur genera
• Timeline of plesiosaur research

References

1. Adam S. Smith and Peggy Vincent (2010). "A new genus of pliosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Lower Jurassic of Holzmaden, Germany" (PDF). Palaeontology 53 (5): 1049–1063. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00975.x.
2. Roger B. J. Benson, Mark Evans and Patrick S. Druckenmiller (2012). "High Diversity, Low Disparity and Small Body Size in Plesiosaurs (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Triassic–Jurassic Boundary". PLoS ONE 7 (3): e31838. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031838. PMC 3306369. PMID 22438869.