Pistosaurus
| Pistosaurus | ||||||||||||
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Pistosaurus |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Middle Triassic ( Anisium to Ladinium ) | ||||||||||||
| 247.2 to 235 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pistosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Meyer , 1839 | ||||||||||||
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Pistosaurus ( Pistosaurus longaevus ) was areptile livingin the sea of the Middle Triassic , whose name means liquid lizard . It had features of the nothosaurs , which had a streamlined body and long tail, as well as features of the plesiosaurs that lived in the oceans of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods . Therefore, it is believed that the dinosaur represents a transition stage between the two groups.
Pistosaurus had a stiff spine, which was a hallmark of plesiosaurs. He probably moved his three-meter-long body mainly with his paddle-like legs. The body and tail were insignificant for the movement process. It had a small head, typical of plesiosaurs, with sharp, pointed teeth. This made Pistosaurus an efficient fish eater. Its distribution area was today's Europe, with areas in France and Germany in particular representing sites for traces of the dinosaur. Pistosaurus belonged to the Pistosauridae family. The animal, which lived about 245 to 228 million years ago, belongs to the subclass of the Diapsida .
literature
- Jinny Johnson: The Dinosaur Lexicon. (Over 250 images of the most important dinosaur species). Ravensburger Buchverlag, Ravensburg 2000, ISBN 3-473-35878-9 .
- The Paleobiology Database Pistosaurus
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert L. Carroll : Paleontology and Evolution of the Vertebrates. Thieme, Stuttgart et al. 1993, ISBN 3-13774-401-6 .