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Ichthyopterygia
 
 
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Ichthyopterygia ("fish flippers") was a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen
Richard Owen

Sir Richard Owen Order of the Bath was an English people biologist, comparative anatomy and paleontology.Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection....
 in 1840 to designate the Jurassic Ichthyosaur
Ichthyosaur

Ichthyosaurs were giant marine reptiles that resembled fish and dolphins. Ichthyosaurs thrived during much of the Mesozoic era; based on fossil evidence, they first appeared approximately 245 million years ago and disappeared about 90 million years ago, about 25 million years before the dinosaurs became extinct....
s that were known at the time, but the term is now used more often for both true Ichthyosauria and their more primitive early and middle Triassic
Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period that extends from about 251 to 199 annum . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic....
 ancestors (Motani 1997, Motani et al. 1998).

Basal
Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group form an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...
 ichthyopterygians (prior to and ancestral to true Ichthyosauria) were mostly small (a meter or less in length) with elongate bodies and long spool shaped vertebra
Vertebra

A vertebra is an individual bone in the flexible column that defines vertebrate animals. The vertebral column encases and protects the spinal cord, which runs from the base of the cranium down the dorsal side of the animal until reaching the pelvis....
e, indicating that they swam in a sinuous eel
Eel

True eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 19 Family s, 110 genera and approximately 600 species. Most eels are predators....
-like manner.






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Ichthyopterygia ("fish flippers") was a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen
Richard Owen

Sir Richard Owen Order of the Bath was an English people biologist, comparative anatomy and paleontology.Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection....
 in 1840 to designate the Jurassic Ichthyosaur
Ichthyosaur

Ichthyosaurs were giant marine reptiles that resembled fish and dolphins. Ichthyosaurs thrived during much of the Mesozoic era; based on fossil evidence, they first appeared approximately 245 million years ago and disappeared about 90 million years ago, about 25 million years before the dinosaurs became extinct....
s that were known at the time, but the term is now used more often for both true Ichthyosauria and their more primitive early and middle Triassic
Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period that extends from about 251 to 199 annum . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic....
 ancestors (Motani 1997, Motani et al. 1998).

Basal
Basal (phylogenetics)

In phylogenetics, a basal clade is the earliest clade to branch in a larger clade; it appears at the base of a cladogram.A basal group form an outgroup to the rest of the clade, such as in the following example:...
 ichthyopterygians (prior to and ancestral to true Ichthyosauria) were mostly small (a meter or less in length) with elongate bodies and long spool shaped vertebra
Vertebra

A vertebra is an individual bone in the flexible column that defines vertebrate animals. The vertebral column encases and protects the spinal cord, which runs from the base of the cranium down the dorsal side of the animal until reaching the pelvis....
e, indicating that they swam in a sinuous eel
Eel

True eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 19 Family s, 110 genera and approximately 600 species. Most eels are predators....
-like manner. This allowed for quick movements and maneuverability that were an advantage in shallow-water hunting (Motani 2000). Even at this early stage they were already very specialised animals with proper flippers, and would have been incapable of movement on land.

These animals seem to have been widely distributed around the coast of the northern half of Pangea, as they are known the Late Olenekian
Olenekian

The Olenekian is a faunal stage of the Early Triassic epoch . It spans the time between 249.7 ? 0.7 annum and 245 ? 0.7 Ma . The Olenekian is divided into the Smithian and the Spathian age....
 and Early Anisian
Anisian

In the geologic timescale, the Anisian is the geologic age of the Middle Triassic geologic epoch and lasted from 245 million years ago until 237 million years ago, approximately....
 (early part of the Triassic
Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period that extends from about 251 to 199 annum . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic....
 period) of Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, and Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is a Norway island, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The island of Spitsbergen covers approximately 39,044 km? ....
 (Norway
Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
). By the later part of the Middle Triassic they were extinct, having been replaced by their descendents the true ichthyosaurs.

Taxonomy


  • Superorder Ichthyopterygia
    • Family Utatsusauridae
    • Family Parvinatatoridae
    • Order Grippidia
    • Order Ichthyosaur
      Ichthyosaur

      Ichthyosaurs were giant marine reptiles that resembled fish and dolphins. Ichthyosaurs thrived during much of the Mesozoic era; based on fossil evidence, they first appeared approximately 245 million years ago and disappeared about 90 million years ago, about 25 million years before the dinosaurs became extinct....
      ia


Phylogeny

Cladogram after Motani (1998, 1999) and Nicholls & Manabe (2001).

Neodiapsida
Neodiapsida

Neodiapsida is a clade or major branch of the reptilian family tree, that includes all Diapsids apart from some early primitive types known as Araeoscelidia....
 |--Sauria
Sauria

Sauria is a clade of reptiles that includes all living diapsids, as well as their common ancestor and all its extinct descendants. The ancestral saurian was probably a small lizard-like creature living in the Permian Period....
 '-?Ichthyopterygia |-?Hupehsuchus
Hupehsuchus

Hupehsuchus was a small genus of marine reptile, about 1 meter long. It was found in the area of Hubei in China. This marine reptile lived in the Olenekian stage of the Early Triassic period....
 |-?Thaisaurus |--Utatsusaurus
Utatsusaurus

Utatsusaurus is the earliest-known form of an ichthyopterygian , which lived in the early Triassic period . Unlike the more advanced ichthyosaurs, Utatsusaurus has no dorsal fin and has a broad skull that tapers slowly toward the snout....
 |--Parvinatator '--Eoichthyosauria |--Grippidae '--Ichthyosauria |-?Mikadocephalus |-?Wimanius |--Cymbospondylus
Cymbospondylus

Cymbospondylus was a basal early ichthyosaur that lived in the middle of the Triassic period . It was one of the largest ichthyosaurs, and fossils range from 6 m up to 10 m long....
 '--+--Mixosauridae '--Merriamosauria |--+-?Mixosaurus
Mixosaurus

Mixosaurus is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur. It was about 1 meter long. Fossils of Mixosaurus, which means "Mixed Lizard" have been found all over the world - China, Timor, Indonesia, Italy, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Canada, Alaska, and Nevada....
 | '--+-?Cymbospondylus
Cymbospondylus

Cymbospondylus was a basal early ichthyosaur that lived in the middle of the Triassic period . It was one of the largest ichthyosaurs, and fossils range from 6 m up to 10 m long....
 | '--Shastasauridae '--Euichthyosauria |--Teretocnemidae
Teretocnemidae

Teretocnemidae were a group of ichthyosaurs that lived from the Late Jurassic period....
 '--+--Californosaurus
Californosaurus

Californosaurus perrini was an ichthyosaur, an extinct fish-like marine reptile, from the Lower Hosselkus Limestone of California. It has also been known as Shastasaurus perrini and Delphinosaurus perrini....
 '--Parvipelvia |--Macgovania '--+--Hudsonelpidia '--+--Suevoleviathan '--+--Temnodontosaurus
Temnodontosaurus

Temnodontosaurus was an ichthyosaur from the Early Jurassic, some 198 and 185 million years ago , in Europe . It was a large genus, exceeded 12 meters in length....
 |--Eurhinosauridae '--Thunnosauria |-?Chacaicosaurus
Chacaicosaurus

Chacaicosaurus is a genus of ichthyosaur that lived in the Middle Jurassic . Fossils have been found in Argentina.References...
 |--Stenopterygius
Stenopterygius

Stenopterygius is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur from the Early to Middle Jurassic from Europe . Maximum length was 4 m....
 '--+--Ichthyosaurus
Ichthyosaurus

Ichthyosaurus is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur from the Early Jurassic of Europe . It is among the best known ichthyosaur genera, with the Order Ichthyosauria being named after it....
 '--Ophthalmosauridae
Ophthalmosauridae

Ophthalmosauridae were a family of ichthyosaurs that lived from the Jurassic to the Cretaceous period.Within Ophthalmosauridae there are two lineages, one including Aegirosaurus and Ophthalmosaurus, and the other including Brachypterygius, Caypullisaurus and Platypterygius....


External links

  • - Mikko's Phylogeny Archive