Lusonectes
| Lusonectes Temporal range: Early Jurassic,
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|---|---|
| File:Lusonectes.jpg | |
| Holotype partial skull and explanatory drawings | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | †Sauropterygia |
| Order: | †Plesiosauria |
| Superfamily: | †Plesiosauroidea |
| Family: | †Plesiosauridae |
| Genus: | †Lusonectes Smith, Araújo & Mateus, 2012 |
| Species: | †L. sauvagei
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| Binomial name | |
| †Lusonectes sauvagei Smith, Araújo & Mateus, 2012
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Lusonectes (meaning "Portuguese swimmer") is an extinct genus of microcleidid plesiosaur from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) São Gião Formation of Portugal.
Etymology
[edit | edit source]The generic name is derived from the prefix Luso, from Latin Lusitania referring to Portugal, and nektes ("swimmer" in Greek). The specific name honors Henri Émile Sauvage, who was the first person to describe the holotype specimen.
Discovery and naming
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The holotype, MG33, a partial skull and articulated mandible, was discovered possibly by geologist Paul Choffat and his team during the 19th century within rocks from the São Gião Formation near Murtede, Portugal.[1]
Henri Émile Sauvage (1898) described MG33 as belonging to an unknown species of Plesiosaurus.[2] Other authors, including Bardet et al. (2008)[3] and Ruiz−Omeñaca et al. (2009)[4] also classified MG33 within Plesiosaurus. Castanhinha and Mateus (2007)[5] and Smith & Vincent (2010)[6] instead classified the specimen as an indeterminate member of Plesiosauria.
The specimen was described and named by Adam S. Smith, Ricardo Araújo and Octávio Mateus in 2012 as Lusonectes sauvagei.[1] Lusonectes was described as the first diagnostic plesiosaur species discovered in Portugal to date.[1]
Description
[edit | edit source]It is based on a single autapomorphy, a broad triangular parasphenoid cultriform process that is as long as the posterior interpterygoid vacuities, and also on a unique character combination.[1]
Classification
[edit | edit source]Smith, Araújo and Mateus (2012) found Lusonectes to belong to the Plesiosauridae[1] when placed within a cladogram created by Ketchum and Benson (2010).[7]
See also
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References
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- ^ Sauvage, H.E. (1897–1898). Vertébrés fossiles du Portugal. Contribution à l’étude des poissons et des reptiles du Jurassique et du Crétacique. Memórias Commissão do Serviço Geológico de Portugal 1897–1898: 1–46.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Ruiz−Omeñaca, J.I., Bardet, N., Piñuela, L., José Carlos García−Ramos, J.C., and Pereda−Suberbiola, X. (2009). El fósil de plesiosaurio (Sauro− pterygia) más antiguo de la Peninsula Ibérica: una vértebra procedente del Hettangiense−Sinemuriense de Asturias. Geogaceta 46: 79–82.
- ^ Castanhinha, R. and Mateus, O. (2007). Short review on the marine reptiles of Portugal: ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27: 57A.
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Lusonectes sauvagei, a plesiosaur from the Lower Jurassic of Portugal at Sachs Vertebrate Palaeontology Research