Platypterygius

Platypterygius Temporal range: Late Hauterivian-Late Cenomanian ~130–94.3 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Skull of P. sachicarum in the Paleontological Museum in Villa de Leyva, Colombia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	†Ichthyosauria
Family:	†Ophthalmosauridae
Subfamily:	†Platypterygiinae
Genus:	†Platypterygius von Huene, 1922
Type species
†Ichthyosaurus platydactylus Broilli 1907
Other species
†P. americanus (Nace, 1939) †P. australis (McCoy, 1867) †P. hautali (Huene, 1927) †P. hercynicus Kuhn, 1946 †P. kiprijanoffi Romer, 1968 †P. sachicarum Páramo, 1997

Platypterygius is an ichthyosaur of the family Ophthalmosauridae. It is most closely related to the genera Caypullisaurus and Brachypterygius.^[1] The ichthyosaur lived from the Early Cretaceous period (Hauterivian stage) to the earliest Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage) and had a cosmopolitan distribution.

Description[]

Restoration of P. longmani

Platypterygius reached a length of about 7 metres (23 ft). It had a long snout and a powerful finned tail. There are more digits in the front flippers than is usual in ichthyosaurs; they are tightly bound in rows, giving a broad, flat appearance^{[citation needed]}. This unusual characteristic gives the genus its name, meaning 'flat wing.' Furthermore, some of the wrist bones have disappeared entirely.^{[citation needed]} CAT scans on a juvenile specimen strongly suggest that Platypterygius was deaf.^[2]

Discovery and species[]

There are eight named species. Both adults and juveniles have been unearthed, including newborns and pregnant females which indicate that, like other ichthyosaurs, Platypterygius gave live birth.^{[citation needed]}

The remains from Australia were originally called Ichthyosaurus australis. They are from the Toolebuc Formation and Allaru Mudstone (Albian, Lower Cretaceous) of Flinders River and other localities in north central Queensland. In 1990 Wade erected the species name P. longmani to include all remains previously referred to I. australis.^{[citation needed]}

Recognized species[]

• Platypterygius platydactylus Broilli, 1907 (type)
• Platypterygius americanus Nace, 1939
• Platypterygius australis McCoy, 1867
• Platypterygius hautali von Huene, 1927
• Platypterygius hercynicus Kuhn, 1946
• Platypterygius kiprijanoffi Romer, 1968
• Platypterygius sachicarum Páramo, 1997

Formerly assigned species[]

Skull of P. sp., Sternberg Museum of Natural History

• Pervushovisaurus bannovkensis Arkhangelsky, 1998^[3]
• Pervushovisaurus campylodon Carter, 1846^[4]
• Simbirskiasaurus birjukovi Otschev and Efimov, 1985^[3]
• Plutoniosaurus bedengensis Efimov, 1997
• Platypterygius ochevi Arkhangelsky et al., 2008
• Ichthyosaurus steleodon Bogolobov, 1909

Classification[]

Photo, 3D model and tomography of the left flipper of P. sachicarum on the cover of Boletín de Geología

The cladogram below follows the topology from a 2010 analysis by Patrick S. Druckenmiller and Erin E. Maxwell.^[5]

Paleobiology[]

P. kiprijanovi - Albian-Cenomanian of Kursk region (Russia)

P. australis has been found with remains of sea turtles and birds (Nanantius) in its guts.^[7] Several species attributed to this genus do indeed appear to be apex predators, specialized to hunting proportionally large prey.^[8]

Distribution[]

Fossils of Platypterygius are known from:^[9]

• Río Belgrano Formation, Argentina^[10]
• Allaru, Toolebuc and Wallumbilla Formations, Australia^[10]
• Loon River Formation, Northwest Territories and Ashville Formation, Saskatchewan, Canada^[10]
• Zapata Formation, Chile^[11]
• Paja Formation, Colombia^[12]
• and , France
• Germany
• Waiokumurau Valley, New Zealand
• Melovatka Formation, Russia
• La Presta, Switzerland
• Gault, Lower Chalk and , England
• Kiowa Shale, Kansas, Grayson Marl, Texas, Mowry Shale and Belle Fourche Formation, Wyoming, United States^[10]
• Apón Formation, Venezuela

See also[]

• List of ichthyosaurs
• Timeline of ichthyosaur research
• Kronosaurus

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Arkhangelsky, M.S. (1998). "On the Ichthyosaurian genus Platypterygius". Paleontological Journal. 32 (6): 611–615.
• Arkhangelsky, M.S.; Averianov, A.O.; Pervushov, E.M.; Ratnikov, V. Yu; Zozyrev, N. Yu. (2008). "On ichthyosaur remains from the Cretaceous of the Voronezh region". Paleontological Journal. 42 (3): 287–291. doi:10.1134/S0031030108030106. S2CID 128822178.
• Druckenmiller, Patrick S.; Maxwell, Erin E. (2010). "A new Lower Cretaceous (lower Albian) ichthyosaur genus from the Clearwater Formation, Alberta, Canada". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 47 (8): 1037–1053. Bibcode:2010CaJES..47.1037D. doi:10.1139/E10-028.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Fernández, M. (2007). "Redescription and phylogenetic position of Caypullisaurus (Ichthyosauria: Ophthalmosauridae)". Journal of Paleontology. 81 (2): 368–375. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2007)81[368:rappoc]2.0.co;2.
• Fischer, V. (2016). "Taxonomy of Platypterygius campylodon and the diversity of the last ichthyosaurs". PeerJ. 4: e2604. doi:10.7717/peerj.2604. PMC 5075704. PMID 27781178.
• Fischer, Valentin; Bardet, Nathalie; Benson, Roger B.J.; Arkhangelsky, Maxim S.; Friedman, Matt (2016). "Extinction of fish-shaped marine reptiles associated with reduced evolutionary rates and global environmental volatility". Nature Communications. 7: 10825. Bibcode:2016NatCo...710825F. doi:10.1038/ncomms10825. PMC 4786747. PMID 26953824.
• Fischer, Valentin; Arkhangelsky, Maxim S.; Naish, Darren; Stenshin, Ilya M.; Uspensky, Gleb N.; Godefroit, Pascal (2014). "Simbirskiasaurus and Pervushovisaurus reassessed: implications for the taxonomy and cranial osteology of Cretaceous platypterygiine ichthyosaurs". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 171 (4): 822–841. doi:10.1111/zoj.12158.
• Kear, Benjamin P.; Boles, Walter E.; Smith, Elizabeth T. (2003). "Unusual gut contents in a Cretaceous ichthyosaur". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 270 (Suppl 2): S206–S208. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2003.0050. PMC 1809966. PMID 14667384.
• Páramo Fonseca, María Eurídice (2018). "Restos apendiculares de un ictiosaurio oftalmosáurido del Barremiano inferior de Villa de Leiva, Colombia". Boletín de Geología. 40: 15–30. doi:10.18273/revbol.v40n1-2018001.
• Páramo, M.E. (1997). "Platypterygius sachicarum (Reptilia, Ichthyosauria) nueva especie del Cretácico de Colombia". Revista INGEOMINAS. 6: 1–12.
• Pardo Pérez, Judith; Frey, Eberhard; Stinnesbeck, Wolfgang; Fernández, Marta S.; Rivas, Luis; Salazar, Christian; Leppe, Marcelo (2012). "An ichthyosaurian forefin from the Lower Cretaceous Zapata Formation of southern Chile: implications for morphological variability within Platypterygius". Palaeoclimate, Palaeobiology, Paleoenvironments. 92 (2): 287–294. doi:10.1007/s12549-012-0074-8. S2CID 128487253. Retrieved 30 August 2016.

Further reading[]

• Long, J.A., Dinosaurs of Australia and New Zealand, UNSW Press, Australia 1998

External links[]

• Dann's Dinosaurs^{[permanent dead link]}
• Platypterygius