Pervushovisaurus

Pervushovisaurus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 95.5 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Ichthyosauria
Family: Ophthalmosauridae
Subfamily: Platypterygiinae
Genus: Pervushovisaurus
Arkhangel'skii, 1998
Species
  • P. bannovkensis Arkhangel'skii 1998 (Type)

Pervushovisaurus is a genus of platypterygiine ichthyosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian, 94-100 Ma) of the Saratov region in western Russia. It was originally described as a subgenus of Platypterygius,[1] but later work showed that it was distinct from the type species of Platypterygius, P. platydactylus, to be elevated to full generic rank.[2] The type species of Pervushovisaurus, P. bannovkensis, is known only from the holotype, SSU 104a/24, a partial skull.[3]

Description

Fischer et al. give the diagnosis of Pervushovisaurus as follows (p. 829): "Platypterygiine ophthalmosaurid characterized by the following autapomorphies: presence of foramina along the ventral premaxillary–maxillary suture; presence of a semi-oval foramen on the lateral surface of the premaxilla, anteroventral to the external naris; presence of lateral ridges on the maxilla; presence of wide supranarial ‘wing’ of the nasal (a similar structure, although much smaller, is present in Platypterygius australis and Acamptonectes densus; see Kear, 2005; Fischer et al., 2012, respectively); robust splenial markedly protruding from the external surface of the mandible. Pervushovisaurus bannovkensis is also characterized by the following unique combination of features: secondarily closed naris surrounded by foramina [as in Platypterygius sachicarum and Platypterygius australis (see Páramo, 1997 and Kear, 2005, respectively), and in Simbirskiasaurus birjukovi, although the ‘anterior’naris is still present in this taxon (Maisch & Matzke 2000; this work)]; elongated anterior process of the maxilla, reaching anteriorly the level of the nasal [unlike in Aegirosaurus leptospondylus (see Bardet & Fernández, 2000) and Sveltonectes insolitus (see Fischer et al., 2011b)]; root cementum forming prominent 90° angles (as in Platypterygius campylodon; see Fischer et al., 2014b)."[2]

References

  1. ↑ Arkhangel’sky, M. S., 1998, On the Ichthyosaurian Genus Platypterygius: Palaeontological Journal, v. 32, n. 6, p. 611-615.
  2. 1 2 Valentin Fischer, Maxim S. Arkhangelsky, Darren Naish, Ilya M. Stenshin, Gleb N. Uspensky and Pascal Godefroit (2014) Simbirskiasaurus and Pervushovisaurus reassessed: implications for the taxonomy and cranial osteology of Cretaceous platypterygiine ichthyosaurs. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 171(4): 822–841. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zoj.12158/abstract
  3. ↑ Storrs, G. W., M. S. Arkhangel'skii and V. M. Efimov. 2000. Mesozoic marine reptiles of Russia and other former Soviet republics. pages 187-210 In Benton, M. J., M. A. Shiskin, D. M. Unwin and E. N. Kurochkin, (eds.), The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

External links

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