Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-sjtt6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T11:33:35.980Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

P.C.H. Albers
P.C.H. Albers*
Affiliation:
Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands. Email: [email protected].
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Three nothosaur skulls from the Lower Muschelkalk (Lower Anisian) locality of Winterswijk, the Netherlands, were recently acquired by museum Twentse Welle (Enschede) and have thereby become available for scientific description. Thus, these skulls had been identified as Nothosaurus winterswijkensis, but upon examination these skulls challenge the status of this Nothosaurus species. All diagnostic characters are somehow discredited, but the material can also not be unequivocably be considered as Nothosaurus marchicus, which is the only other obvious candidate. As these fossils originate from the same strata as the type of Nothosaurus winterswijkensis and there is no reason to assume that the animals occupied different ecological niches they are more plausibly considered one species, and Nothosaurus winterswijkensis therefore becomes a junior synonym of Nothosaurus marchicus. The diagnosis of Nothosaurus marchicus is enlarged to include all finds.

Keywords

Nothosaurus winterswijkensisNothosaurus marchicusrevision
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 90 , Issue 1 , August 2011 , pp. 15 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2011

References

Albers, P., 2005a. A new specimen of Nothosaurus marchicus with features that relate the taxon to Nothosaurus winterswijkensis . www.PalArch.nl, Vertebrate Palaeontology, 3, (1): 1–7.Google Scholar
Albers, P., 2005b. A placodontoid jaw fragment from the Lower Muschelkalk of Winterswijk (the Netherlands). www.PalArch.nl, Vertebrate Palaeontology 3 (5): 34–36.Google Scholar
Albers, P. & Rieppel, O., 2003. A new species of the sauropterygian genus Nothosaurus from the Lower Muschelkalk of Winterswijk, the Netherlands. Journal of Paleontology 77: 738–774.Google Scholar
Bickelmann, C. & Sander, M., 2008. A partial skeleton and isolated humeri of Nothosaurus (Reptilia: Eosauropterygia) from Winterswijk, the Netherlands. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28(2): 326–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baur, G., 1889. Palaeohatteria Credner, and the Proganosauria. American Journal of Science 3(37): 310–313.Google Scholar
Harsveldt, H.M., 1973. The middle Triassic Limestone (Muschelkalk) in the Achterhoek (E Gelderland) Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Nederlands Geologisch Genootschap 29: 43–50.Google Scholar
Hooijer, D.A., 1959. Records of nothosaurians from the Muschelkalk of Winterswijk, the Netherlands. Geologie en Mijnbouw 21: 37–39.Google Scholar
Jaekel, O., 1911. Die Wirbeltiere. Eine Übersicht über die fossilen und lebende Formen. Gebr. Borntraeger, Berlin.Google Scholar
Klein, N. & Albers, P.C.H., 2009. A new species oft he sauropsid reptile Nothosaurus from the Lower Muschelkalk oft he western Germanic Basin, Winterswijk, the Netherlands. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54: 589–598.Google Scholar
Koken, E., 1893. Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Gattung Nothosaurus . Zeitschrift der deutschen geologischen Gesellschaft, 45: 337–377.Google Scholar
Münster, G., 1834. Vorläufige Nachricht über einige neue Reptilien im Muschelkalke von Baiern. Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geognosie, Geologie und Petrefaktenkunde 1834: 521–527.Google Scholar
Oosterink, H.W., 1986. Winterswijk, Geologie deel II. De Trias-periode (geologie, mineralen en fossielen) Wetenschappelijke Mededeling van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Natuurhistorische Vereniging 178:1–120.Google Scholar
Oosterink, H., Berkelder, W., De Jong, C., Lankamp, J. & Winkelhorst, H., 2003. Sauriers uit de Onder-Muschelkalk van Winterswijk. In: Verenigung, N.G. (ed.): Staringia 11, Volume Jahrgang 57, Nummer 1a, Grondboor & Hamer, 146 pp.Google Scholar
Oosterink, H. & Diepenbroek, G.H., 1990. Nieuwe vondsten uit de Winterswijkse Trias. Grondboor & Hamer 44(6): 150–154.Google Scholar
Owen, R., 1860. Paleontology; or a systematic summary of extinct animals and their geologic remains. Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh, XV + 420p.Google Scholar
Rieppel, O., 1994. Braincases of Simosaurus and Nothosaurus: monophyly of the Nothosauridae (Reptilia, Sauropterygia). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 14: 9–23.Google Scholar
Rieppel, O., 2000. Sauropterygia I. In: Wellnhofer, P. (ed.): Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology, Volume 12A, Friedrich Pfeil (München), 134 pp.Google Scholar
Rieppel, O. & Werneburg, R., 1998. A new species of the sauropterygian Cymatosaurus from the Lower Muschelkalk of Thuringia, Germany. Palaeontology 41: 575–589.Google Scholar
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: Geology 40: 1–85.Google Scholar
Sander, M., Klein, N., Albers, P.C.H., Bickelmann, C. & Winkelhorst, H. (submitted). Postcranial morphology of a basal Pistosauroidea from the Lower Muschelkalk of Winterswijk, the Netherlands and a revised and extended phylogenetic analysis of Triassic Sauropterygia.Google Scholar