Alickmeron
| Alickmeron Temporal range: Late Triassic,
| |
|---|---|
| File:Alwalkeria.png | |
| Holotype (bottom) and referred (top) femora | |
| Scientific classification Edit this classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | †Pterosauromorpha |
| Family: | †Lagerpetidae |
| Genus: | †Alickmeron Sen & Ray, 2025 |
| Species: | †A. maleriensis
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Alickmeron maleriensis Sen & Ray, 2025
| |
Alickmeron ("Alick's femur") is a proposed extinct genus of lagerpetid pterosauromorphs from the Late Triassic (Carnian–Norian ages) Lower Maleri Formation of India. The type species is Alickmeron maleriensis.
Discovery and naming
[edit | edit source]In 1987, Sankar Chatterjee named Walkeria (later renamed Alwalkeria)[1] maleriensis as a new podokesaurid theropod dinosaur based on a partial skull, 28 incomplete vertebrae from all parts of the spinal column, a proximal left femur and distal right femur, and an astragalus (ankle bone). The bones were collected in the Godavari Valley locality from the Lower Maleri Formation of Andhra Pradesh, India by Chatterjee in 1974, and are housed in the collection of the Indian Statistical Institute, in Kolkata, India.[2]
Later research indicated that the originally-proposed hypodigm is chimeric, with the skull bones belonging to a member of the Crocodylomorpha. Lecuona and colleagues (2016) claimed the distal femur was more consistent with the morphology of pseudosuchians, leading them to identify this bone fragment as an indeterminate representative of that clade.[3]
In 2025, Sen & Ray affirmed the chimeric status of the specimen and claimed the femora could be described as a new genus of lagerpetid pterosauromorphs, which they named Alickmeron, honoring British paleontologist Alick Walker. The specific name, which is taken from Alwalkeria maleriensis, references the Lower Maleri Formation, in southern India, where the fossil material was found.[2] The holotype was restricted to ISIR306b, the distal (lower) part of a right femur. ISIR306a, the proximal (upper) part of a left femur, was also referred to the species.[4]
Classification
[edit | edit source]
Sen & Ray (2025) performed two phylogenetic analyses to test the position of Alickmeron. Using the dataset of Mestriner et al. (2023),[5] they recovered Alickmeron as a member of the Lagerpetidae, as the sister taxon to a clade formed by Venetoraptor and Kongonaphon. A cladogram adapted from this analysis is shown below:[4]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Chatterjee, S. & Creisler, B.S. 1994. Alwalkeria (Theropoda) and Morturneria (Plesiosauria), new names for preoccupied Walkeria Chatterjee, 1987, and Turneria Chatterjee and Small, 1989. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 14(1): 142.
- ^ a b Chatterjee, S. 1987. A new theropod dinosaur from India with remarks on the Gondwana-Laurasia connection in the Late Cretaceous. In: McKenzie, G.D. (Ed.). Gondwana Six: Stratigraphy, Sedimentology, and Paleontology. Geophysical Monograph 41. Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union. Pp. 183–189.
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