Pachystropheus

Pachystropheus (After Greek Pachys, "Thick" and Strophaios, Vertebrae) is a genus of prehistoric reptile, possibly a choristodere (champsosaur), from the Rhaetian (Late Triassic) of southwestern England. It was named by Erika von Huene in 1935; Huene described Pachystropheus as a champsosaur,[1] but this was overlooked for decades until its redescription by Storrs and Gower in 1993. This reevaluation would extend the fossil record of champsosaurs back 45 million years.[2] However, other authors consider attribution of Pachystropheus to Choristodera problematic, stating that it depends on vertebral and girdle characters that are also found in the skeletons of aquatic reptiles other than choristoderes;[3] most of the diagnostic features of choristoderes are skull features, but the presence of these cannot be confirmed in Pachystropheus, as there is no confirmed skull material for this taxon.[4] Silvio Renesto (2005) found similarities in the postcranial skeleton of Pachystropheus and the thalattosaur genus Endennasaurus; according to Renesto, these similarities may indicate that Pachystropheus and Endennasaurus are close relatives, but they might as well simply be a case of a convergent evolution triggered by the aquatic lifestyle of both taxa.[5]

Pachystropheus
Temporal range: Late Triassic
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: †Choristodera (?)
Genus: †Pachystropheus
von Huene, 1935
Species:
†P. rhaeticus
Binomial name
†Pachystropheus rhaeticus
von Huene, 1935

References
  1. von Huene, Erika (1935). "Ein Rhynchocephale aus dem Rhat (Pachystropheus n. g.)". Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie (in German). 74: 441–447.
  2. Storrs, G.W.; Gower, D.J. (1993). "The earliest possible choristodere (Diapsida) and gaps in the fossil record of semi-aquatic reptiles". Journal of the Geological Society. 150 (6): 1103–1107. doi:10.1144/gsjgs.150.6.1103.
  3. Ryoko Matsumoto; Shigeru Suzuki; Khisigjav Tsogtbaatar; Susan E. Evans (2009). "New material of the enigmatic reptile Khurendukhosaurus (Diapsida: Choristodera) from Mongolia". Naturwissenschaften. 96 (2): 233–242. doi:10.1007/s00114-008-0469-6. PMID 19034405.
  4. Ryoko Matsumoto & Susan E. Evans (2010). "Choristoderes and the freshwater assemblages of Laurasia". Journal of Iberian Geology. 36 (2): 253–274. doi:10.5209/rev_jige.2010.v36.n2.11.
  5. Silvio Renesto (2005). "A possible find of Endennasaurus (Reptilia, Thalattosauria) with a comparison between Endennasaurus and Pachystropheus". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Monatshefte. Jg. 2005 (2): 118–128.


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