Aigialosaurs

Aigialosaurs
	Artistic life reconstruction of Aigialosaurus dalmaticus
Temporal occurrence
	Upper Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous
	150.8 to 88.6 million years
Locations
	Europe;
Systematics
	Scale lizards (Lepidosauria)
	Scale reptiles (Squamata)
	Toxicofera
	Sneaky (Anguimorpha)
	Mosasauroidea
	Aigialosaurs
Scientific name
	Aigialosauridae
	Kramberger , 1892

Aigialosaurs (Aigialosauridae) were medium-sized diapside reptiles , adapted to an aquatic life , that lived on the coasts of Europe from the late Upper Jurassic ( Tithonium ) to the early Upper Cretaceous ( Turonium ) . An incomplete skull comes from the Tithonium of southern Germany, several skeletons from deposits of the Cenomanium and Turonium were found in Yugoslavia.

features

Their skull resembles that of the mosasaur , the eight cervical vertebrae and the postcranial skeleton more like that of the more recent monitor lizards . The limbs are somewhat reduced, but not yet converted into fins as in the mosasaurs. The long tail is compressed at the sides and bent downwards at the extreme end, as in the ichthyosaurs .

Systematics

The monophyly of the aigialosaurs is not certain, they could be the sister group of the mosasaurs, or it is a group of primitive mosasaurs.

Genera

literature

Robert L. Carroll : Paleontology and Evolution of the Vertebrates. Thieme, Stuttgart a. a. 1993, ISBN 3-13774-401-6 .

Individual evidence

↑ Aigialosauridae - Palæos. Last accessed on February 23, 2013
↑ Michael SY Lee: The phylogeny of varanoid lizards and the affnities of snakes. In: The Royal Society. Philosophical Transactions. Series B: Biological Sciences. Vol. 352, No. 1349, 1997, ISSN 0080-4622 , pp. 1471-2970, doi : 10.1098 / rstb.1997.0005 , PMC 1691912 (free full text).