Nothosaurus ("false lizard", from the Ancient Greek nothos (νόθος), "illegitimate", and sauros (σαῦρος), "lizard") is an extinct genus of sauropterygianreptile from the Triassic period, approximately 240–210 million years ago, with fossils being distributed from North Africa and Europe to China. It is the best known member of the nothosaur order.
Nothosaurus was a semi-oceanic animal which probably had a lifestyle similar to that of today's seals. It was about 4 metres (13 ft), with long, webbed toes and possibly a fin on its tail.[1] However, some species such as N. zhangi and N. giganteus were larger, up to 5–7 metres (16–23 ft).[2] When swimming, Nothosaurus would use its tail, legs, and webbed feet to propel and steer it through the water. The skull was broad and flat, with long jaws, lined with needle teeth, it probably caught fish and other marine creatures. Trackways attributed, partly by process of elimination, to a nothosaur, that were reported from Yunnan, China in June 2014, were interpreted as the paddle impressions left as the animals dug into soft seabed with rowing motions of their paddles, churning up hidden benthic creatures that they snapped up.[3] Once caught, few animals would be able to shake themselves free from the mouth of Nothosaurus.
In many respects its body structure resembled that of the much later plesiosaurs, but it was not as well adapted to an aquatic environment. It is thought that one branch of the nothosaurs may have evolved into pliosaurs such as Liopleurodon, a short-necked plesiosaur that grew up to 6.4 metres (21 ft), and the long-necked Cryptoclidus, a fish eater with a neck as long as 1.3 metres (4.3 ft).
SpeciesEdit
Nothosaurus jagisteus
There are nearly a dozen known species of Nothosaurus. The type species is N. mirabilis, named in 1834 from the GermanicMuschelkalk. Other species include N. giganteus (previously known as Paranothosaurus) from Osnabrück, Germany;[4]N. juvenilis, also from Germany;[5]N. edingerae from the Upper Muschelkalk and Lower Keuper;[6]N. haasi and N. tchernovi from Makhtesh Ramon, Israel;[7][8]N. cymatosauroides from the Spanish Muschelkalk;[9]N. jagisteus from the Upper Muschelkalk of Hohenlohe, Germany;[10] and N. youngi, N. yangjuanensis (and its junior synonym N. rostellatus) and the recently named N. zhangi from Guizhou, China.[11][12][13][14] Several species have been described from the Lower Muschelkalk in Winterswijk, the Netherlands, including N. marchicus[15] (and its junior synonym[16]N. winterswijkensis[15]) and N. winkelhorsti.[17] Recently, the long considered lost type material of N. schimperi Meyer, 1842 from the Lower Muschelkalk of Soultz-les-Bains, Alsace, France, has been rediscovered and a lectotype has been designated.[18]
Klein and Albers (2009) conducted a phylogenetic analysis, but did not test the monophyly of Nothosaurus, as other nothosaurids were not included in their analysis.[17]
Nothosaurus
N. edingerae
N. giganteus
N. mirabilis
N. haasi
N. tchernovi
N. jagisteus
N. marchicus
N. winterswijkensis
N. youngi
N. yangiuanensis
N. juvenilis
N. winkelhorsti
Several other species have been named but are now generally considered invalid. One such species, N. procerus, is now considered a junior subjective synonym of N. marchicus.[19][20] Other species now considered junior synonyms of N. marchicus include N. crassus, N. oldenburgi, N. raabi, N. schroderi, N. venustus and the recently named N. winterswijkensis.[16] Junior synonyms of N. giganteus, the second largest Nothosaurus species, include N. andriani, N. angustifronis, N. aduncidens, N. baruthicus and N. chelydrops.[14]
A species level phylogenetic analysis of Nothosauridae was performed by Liu et al. (2014), and included all known valid species of the family and Nothosaurus apart from Lariosaurus stensioi (type of Micronothosaurus), Nothosaurus cymatosauroides, and Ceresiosaurus lanzi. Due to the inclusion of other nothosaurids other than Nothosaurus, the monophyly of Nothosaurus was tested for the first time. The analysis found both Lariosaurus and Nothosaurus to be polyphyletic in regard to each other and all the other genera of the family, making a systematic revision of these two genera necessary. Below, their results are shown with type species of named nothosaurid genera noted.[14] Later, in 2017, the species N. juvenilis, N. youngi, and N. winkelhorsti were formally moved to Lariosaurus.[21]
Parker, Steve. Dinosaurus: the complete guide to dinosaurs. Firefly Books Inc, 2003. Pg. 384
^Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 72. ISBN978-1-84028-152-1.
^Liu, Jun (27 November 2014). "A gigantic nothosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Middle Triassic of SW China and its implications for the Triassic biotic recovery". Scientific Reports. 4: 7142. Bibcode:2014NatSR...4E7142L. doi:10.1038/srep07142. PMC4245812. PMID 25429609.
^(LiveScience) Tia Ghose, "Ancient long-necked 'sea monsters' rowed their way to prey", reporting the scientific article published in Nature Communications 11 June 2014: accessed 28 November 2014.
^Rieppel, O. (1994). "The status of the sauropterygian reptile Nothosaurus juvenilis from the Middle Triassic of Germany". Palaeontology. 37: 733–745.
^Rieppel, O.; Wild, R. (1994). "Nothosaurus edingerae Schultze, 1970: diagnosis of the species and comments on its stratigraphical occurrence". Stuttgarter Beiträge für Naturkunde, Serie B.
^Rieppel, O.; Mazin, J.-M.; Tchernov, E. (1997). "Speciation along rifting continental margins: a new Nothosaur from the Negev (Israël)". Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Série IIA. 325 (12): 991–997. Bibcode:1997CRASE.325..991R. doi:10.1016/s1251-8050(97)82380-4.
^Rieppel, O.; Mazin, J.-M.; Tchernov, E. (1999). "Sauropterygia from the Middle Triassic of Makhtesh Ramon, Negev, Israel". Fieldiana. 1 (40).
^Rieppel, O.; Hagdorn, H. (1998). "Fossil reptiles from the Spanish Muschelkalk (mont-ral and alcover, province Tarragona)". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. 13 (1): 77–97. doi:10.1080/08912969809386575.
^Shang, Q.-H. (2007). "New information on the dentition and tooth replacement of Nothosaurus (Reptilia: Sauropterygia)". Palaeoworld. 16 (1–3): 254–263. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2007.05.007.
^Li, J.; Rieppel, O. (2004). "A new nothosaur from Middle Triassic of Guizhou, China". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 42 (1): 1–12.
^Jiang, W.; Maisch, M. W.; Hao, W.; Sun, Y.; Sun, Z. (2006). "Nothosaurus yangjuanensis n. sp. (Reptilia, Sauropterygia, Nothosauridae) from the middle Anisian (Middle Triassic) of Guizhou, southwestern China". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte. 2006 (5): 257–276. doi:10.1127/njgpm/2006/2006/257.
^Shang, Q.-H. (2006). "A new species of Nothosaurus from the early Middle Triassic of Guizhou，China". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 44 (3): 237–249.
^ abcJun Liu; Shi-xue Hu; Olivier Rieppel; Da-yong Jiang; Michael J. Benton; Neil P. Kelley; Jonathan C. Aitchison; Chang-yong Zhou; Wen Wen; Jin-yuan Huang; Tao Xie; Tao Lv (2014). "A gigantic nothosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Middle Triassic of SW China and its implication for the Triassic biotic recovery". Scientific Reports. 4: Article number 7142. Bibcode:2014NatSR...4E7142L. doi:10.1038/srep07142. PMC4245812. PMID 25429609.
^ abAlbers, P. C. H. (2005). "A new specimen of Nothosaurus marchicus with features that relate the taxon to Nothosaurus winterswijkensis". Vertebrate Palaeontology. 3 (1): 1–7.
^ abAlbers, P.C.H. (August 2011). "New Nothosaurus skulls from the Lower Muschelkalk of the western Lower Saxony Basin (Winterswijk, the Netherlands) shed new light on the status of Nothosaurus winterswijkensis". Netherlands Journal of Geosciences. 90 (1): 15–22. doi:10.1017/S0016774600000639. S2CID 86305887.
^ abKlein, N.; Albers, P. C. H. (2009). "A new species of the sauropsid reptile Nothosaurus from the Lower Muschelkalk of the western Germanic Basin, Winterswijk, The Netherlands". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 54 (4): 589–598. doi:10.4202/app.2008.0083.
^Brignon, A. (2021). "L'histoire de la paléontologie des vertébrés dans le Trias alsacien jusqu'au début du XXe siècle". Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire naturelle et d'Ethnographie de Colmar. 77 (8): 70–136.
^Schroder, H. (1914). "Wirbeltiere der Riidersdorfer Trias". Abhandlungen der Preussischen Geologischen Landesanstalt. Neue Folge. 65: 1–98.
^Rieppel, O.; Wild, R. (1996). "A revision of the genus Nothosaurus (Reptilia. Sauropterygia) from the Germanic Triassic with comments on the status of Conchiosaurus clavatus". Fieldiana. 1 (34): 1–82.
^Lin, W.-B.; Jiang, D.-Y.; Rieppel, O.; Motani, R.; Ji, C.; Tintori, A.; Sun, Z.-Y.; Zhou, Min (2017). "A new specimen of Lariosaurus xingyiensis (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Ladinian (Middle Triassic) Zhuganpo Member, Falang Formation, Guizhou, China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 37 (2): e1278703. doi:10.1080/02724634.2017.1278703. S2CID 90181915.
General referencesEdit
Dixon, Dougal (2006). The Complete Book of Dinosaurs. Hermes House.
Haines, Tim, and Paul Chambers. The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life. Pg. 64. Canada: Firefly Books Ltd., 2006
nothosaurus, false, lizard, from, ancient, greek, nothos, νόθος, illegitimate, sauros, σαῦρος, lizard, extinct, genus, sauropterygian, reptile, from, triassic, period, approximately, million, years, with, fossils, being, distributed, from, north, africa, europ. Nothosaurus false lizard from the Ancient Greek nothos no8os illegitimate and sauros saῦros lizard is an extinct genus of sauropterygian reptile from the Triassic period approximately 240 210 million years ago with fossils being distributed from North Africa and Europe to China It is the best known member of the nothosaur order NothosaurusTemporal range 240 210 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Middle to Late TriassicNothosaurus marchicus skeleton restoration in BerlinScientific classificationDomain EukaryotaKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClass ReptiliaSuperorder SauropterygiaOrder NothosauroideaFamily NothosauridaeSubfamily NothosaurinaeNopcsa 1923Genus NothosaurusMunster 1834Type species Nothosaurus mirabilisMunster 1834SpeciesN cristatus Hinz Matzke amp Pfretzschner 2019 N cymatosauroides Sanz 1983 N edingerae Schultze 1970 N giganteus Munster 1834 N haasi Rieppel et al 1997 N jagisteus Rieppel 2001 N luopingensis Shang et al 2022 N marchicus Koken 1893 N mirabilis Munster 1834 type N tchernovi Haas 1980 N yangjuanensis Jiang et al 2006 N zhangi Liu et al 2014SynonymsGenus synonymy Conchiosaurus Meyer 1834Chondriosaurus Meyer 1838Dracosaurus Agassiz 1846Elmosaurus Huene 1957Kolposaurus Skuphos 1893Menodon Meyer 1838Oligolycus Fristch 1894Opeosaurus Meyer 1847Paranothosaurus Peyer 1939Shingyisaurus Young 1965 Species synonymy Elmosaurus lelmensis Huene 1957Nothosaurus blezingeri Fraas 1896Nothosaurus schimperi Meyer 1834Nothosaurus angustidens Meyer 1844Shingyisaurus unexpectus Young 1965Synonyms of N giganteus Nothosaurus andriani Meyer 1839Nothosaurus angustifronis Meyer 1844Nothosaurus aduncidens Meyer 1853Nothosaurus baruthicus Geissler 1895Nothosaurus chelydrops Fraas 1896Paranothosaurus amsleri Peyer 1939Synonyms of N marchicus Conchiosaurus clavatus Meyer 1834Nothosaurus crassus Schroeder 1914Nothosaurus friedericanus Jaekel 1911Nothosaurus oldenburgi Schroder 1914Nothosaurus procerus Schroder 1914Nothosaurus raabi Schroder 1914Nothosaurus schroderi Huene 1944Nothosaurus venustus Munster 1834Nothosaurus winterswijkensis Albers and Rieppel 2003Synonyms of N mirabilis Dracosaurus bronni Giebel 1847Ichthyosaurus lunevillensis Alberti 1837Nothosaurus bergeri Meyer 1834Nothosaurus muensteri Meyer 1839 Synonyms of N yangjuanensis Nothosaurus rostellatus Shang 2006 Contents 1 Description 2 Species 3 References 4 General referencesDescription Edit Nothosaurus mirabilis Life restorationNothosaurus was a semi oceanic animal which probably had a lifestyle similar to that of today s seals It was about 4 metres 13 ft with long webbed toes and possibly a fin on its tail 1 However some species such as N zhangi and N giganteus were larger up to 5 7 metres 16 23 ft 2 When swimming Nothosaurus would use its tail legs and webbed feet to propel and steer it through the water The skull was broad and flat with long jaws lined with needle teeth it probably caught fish and other marine creatures Trackways attributed partly by process of elimination to a nothosaur that were reported from Yunnan China in June 2014 were interpreted as the paddle impressions left as the animals dug into soft seabed with rowing motions of their paddles churning up hidden benthic creatures that they snapped up 3 Once caught few animals would be able to shake themselves free from the mouth of Nothosaurus In many respects its body structure resembled that of the much later plesiosaurs but it was not as well adapted to an aquatic environment It is thought that one branch of the nothosaurs may have evolved into pliosaurs such as Liopleurodon a short necked plesiosaur that grew up to 6 4 metres 21 ft and the long necked Cryptoclidus a fish eater with a neck as long as 1 3 metres 4 3 ft Species Edit Nothosaurus jagisteusThere are nearly a dozen known species of Nothosaurus The type species is N mirabilis named in 1834 from the Germanic Muschelkalk Other species include N giganteus previously known as Paranothosaurus from Osnabruck Germany 4 N juvenilis also from Germany 5 N edingerae from the Upper Muschelkalk and Lower Keuper 6 N haasi and N tchernovi from Makhtesh Ramon Israel 7 8 N cymatosauroides from the Spanish Muschelkalk 9 N jagisteus from the Upper Muschelkalk of Hohenlohe Germany 10 and N youngi N yangjuanensis and its junior synonym N rostellatus and the recently named N zhangi from Guizhou China 11 12 13 14 Several species have been described from the Lower Muschelkalk in Winterswijk the Netherlands including N marchicus 15 and its junior synonym 16 N winterswijkensis 15 and N winkelhorsti 17 Recently the long considered lost type material of N schimperi Meyer 1842 from the Lower Muschelkalk of Soultz les Bains Alsace France has been rediscovered and a lectotype has been designated 18 Klein and Albers 2009 conducted a phylogenetic analysis but did not test the monophyly of Nothosaurus as other nothosaurids were not included in their analysis 17 Nothosaurus N edingeraeN giganteusN mirabilisN haasiN tchernoviN jagisteusN marchicusN winterswijkensisN youngiN yangiuanensisN juvenilisN winkelhorstiSeveral other species have been named but are now generally considered invalid One such species N procerus is now considered a junior subjective synonym of N marchicus 19 20 Other species now considered junior synonyms of N marchicus include N crassus N oldenburgi N raabi N schroderi N venustus and the recently named N winterswijkensis 16 Junior synonyms of N giganteus the second largest Nothosaurus species include N andriani N angustifronis N aduncidens N baruthicus and N chelydrops 14 A species level phylogenetic analysis of Nothosauridae was performed by Liu et al 2014 and included all known valid species of the family and Nothosaurus apart from Lariosaurus stensioi type of Micronothosaurus Nothosaurus cymatosauroides and Ceresiosaurus lanzi Due to the inclusion of other nothosaurids other than Nothosaurus the monophyly of Nothosaurus was tested for the first time The analysis found both Lariosaurus and Nothosaurus to be polyphyletic in regard to each other and all the other genera of the family making a systematic revision of these two genera necessary Below their results are shown with type species of named nothosaurid genera noted 14 Later in 2017 the species N juvenilis N youngi and N winkelhorsti were formally moved to Lariosaurus 21 Pachypleurosauria Nothosauria Simosaurus gaillardoti Nothosauridae Germanosaurus latissimus type of Germanosaurus N zhangiN haasiN edingeraeN jagisteusN mirabilis type of Nothosaurus N tchernoviN marchicusN yangiuanensisN giganteusN juvenilisLariosaurus hongguoensisLariosaurus buzzii type of Silvestrosaurus N winkelhorstiLariosaurus xingyiensisN youngiLariosaurus calcagnii type of Ceresiosaurus Lariosaurus valceresiiLariosaurus balsami type of Lariosaurus Lariosaurus curioniiReferences EditParker Steve Dinosaurus the complete guide to dinosaurs Firefly Books Inc 2003 Pg 384 Palmer D ed 1999 The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals London Marshall Editions p 72 ISBN 978 1 84028 152 1 Liu Jun 27 November 2014 A gigantic nothosaur Reptilia Sauropterygia from the Middle Triassic of SW China and its implications for the Triassic biotic recovery Scientific Reports 4 7142 Bibcode 2014NatSR 4E7142L doi 10 1038 srep07142 PMC 4245812 PMID 25429609 LiveScience Tia Ghose Ancient long necked sea monsters rowed their way to prey reporting the scientific article published in Nature Communications 11 June 2014 accessed 28 November 2014 Diedrich C 2009 The vertebrates of the Anisian Ladinian boundary Middle Triassic from Bissendorf NW Germany and their contribution to the anatomy palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography of the Germanic Basin reptiles Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 273 1 1 16 Bibcode 2009PPP 273 1D doi 10 1016 j palaeo 2008 10 026 Rieppel O 1994 The status of the sauropterygian reptile Nothosaurus juvenilis from the Middle Triassic of Germany Palaeontology 37 733 745 Rieppel O Wild R 1994 Nothosaurus edingerae Schultze 1970 diagnosis of the species and comments on its stratigraphical occurrence Stuttgarter Beitrage fur Naturkunde Serie B Rieppel O Mazin J M Tchernov E 1997 Speciation along rifting continental margins a new Nothosaur from the Negev Israel Comptes Rendus de l Academie des Sciences Serie IIA 325 12 991 997 Bibcode 1997CRASE 325 991R doi 10 1016 s1251 8050 97 82380 4 Rieppel O Mazin J M Tchernov E 1999 Sauropterygia from the Middle Triassic of Makhtesh Ramon Negev Israel Fieldiana 1 40 Rieppel O Hagdorn H 1998 Fossil reptiles from the Spanish Muschelkalk mont ral and alcover province Tarragona Historical Biology An International Journal of Paleobiology 13 1 77 97 doi 10 1080 08912969809386575 Shang Q H 2007 New information on the dentition and tooth replacement of Nothosaurus Reptilia Sauropterygia Palaeoworld 16 1 3 254 263 doi 10 1016 j palwor 2007 05 007 Li J Rieppel O 2004 A new nothosaur from Middle Triassic of Guizhou China Vertebrata PalAsiatica 42 1 1 12 Jiang W Maisch M W Hao W Sun Y Sun Z 2006 Nothosaurus yangjuanensis n sp Reptilia Sauropterygia Nothosauridae from the middle Anisian Middle Triassic of Guizhou southwestern China Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie Monatshefte 2006 5 257 276 doi 10 1127 njgpm 2006 2006 257 Shang Q H 2006 A new species of Nothosaurus from the early Middle Triassic of Guizhou China Vertebrata PalAsiatica 44 3 237 249 a b c Jun Liu Shi xue Hu Olivier Rieppel Da yong Jiang Michael J Benton Neil P Kelley Jonathan C Aitchison Chang yong Zhou Wen Wen Jin yuan Huang Tao Xie Tao Lv 2014 A gigantic nothosaur Reptilia Sauropterygia from the Middle Triassic of SW China and its implication for the Triassic biotic recovery Scientific Reports 4 Article number 7142 Bibcode 2014NatSR 4E7142L doi 10 1038 srep07142 PMC 4245812 PMID 25429609 a b Albers P C H 2005 A new specimen of Nothosaurus marchicus with features that relate the taxon to Nothosaurus winterswijkensis Vertebrate Palaeontology 3 1 1 7 a b Albers P C H August 2011 New Nothosaurus skulls from the Lower Muschelkalk of the western Lower Saxony Basin Winterswijk the Netherlands shed new light on the status of Nothosaurus winterswijkensis Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 90 1 15 22 doi 10 1017 S0016774600000639 S2CID 86305887 a b Klein N Albers P C H 2009 A new species of the sauropsid reptile Nothosaurus from the Lower Muschelkalk of the western Germanic Basin Winterswijk The Netherlands Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54 4 589 598 doi 10 4202 app 2008 0083 Brignon A 2021 L histoire de la paleontologie des vertebres dans le Trias alsacien jusqu au debut du XXe siecle Bulletin de la Societe d Histoire naturelle et d Ethnographie de Colmar 77 8 70 136 Schroder H 1914 Wirbeltiere der Riidersdorfer Trias Abhandlungen der Preussischen Geologischen Landesanstalt Neue Folge 65 1 98 Rieppel O Wild R 1996 A revision of the genus Nothosaurus Reptilia Sauropterygia from the Germanic Triassic with comments on the status of Conchiosaurus clavatus Fieldiana 1 34 1 82 Lin W B Jiang D Y Rieppel O Motani R Ji C Tintori A Sun Z Y Zhou Min 2017 A new specimen of Lariosaurus xingyiensis Reptilia Sauropterygia from the Ladinian Middle Triassic Zhuganpo Member Falang Formation Guizhou China Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 37 2 e1278703 doi 10 1080 02724634 2017 1278703 S2CID 90181915 General references EditDixon Dougal 2006 The Complete Book of Dinosaurs Hermes House Haines Tim and Paul Chambers The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life Pg 64 Canada Firefly Books Ltd 2006 Paleontology portal Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Nothosaurus amp oldid 1170115182, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
