Sauropterygia
| Sauropterygia | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Life picture of Ceresiosaurus calcagnii , a 2 to 3 meter long nothosaur from the Central Triassic of Europe |
||||||||||
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||
| Middle Triassic to Upper Cretaceous | ||||||||||
| 245.9 to 65.5 million years | ||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Sauropterygia | ||||||||||
| Owen , 1860 |
The Sauropterygia ( fin lizard ) are a group of Mesozoic marine reptiles . This extinct taxon includes placodon animals , pachypleurosaurs , nothosaurs and plesiosaurs . Their fossil record includes all continents and stratigraphically stratigraphically reaches from the Middle Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous .
features
In the Sauropterygia reptile groups are summarized, which have little resemblance to one another in their habitus . The common features ( synapomorphies ) of these groups can be found in the anatomy of the skull and the skeleton . All Sauropterygians have an enlarged upper jaw (maxilla) and a typical arrangement of the collarbone (clavicula) and the shoulder blade (scapula).
Systematics
The systematic position of the Sauropterygia is not completely clear. Their classification in the Diapsida is undisputed , where they are mostly related to the Lepidosauria .
- Sauropterygia
literature
- Martin Sander : Sauropterygia. In: Wilfried Westheide , Reinhard Rieger (Ed.): Special Zoology. Part 2: vertebrates or skulls. Spectrum - Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg et al. 2004, ISBN 3-8274-0307-3 , p. 381 f.
- Robert L. Carroll : Paleontology and Evolution of the Vertebrates. Thieme, Stuttgart et al. 1993, ISBN 3-13-774401-6 .
