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| Saurosphargid by Ethan Kocak |
You might all remember that, some time ago, I introduced you
all to an obscure group of Triassic marine reptiles called
saurosphargids. This
strange group of tubby critters includes just three genera:
Saurosphargis,
Largocephalosaurus, and
Sinosaurosphargis.
Confusingly, Nosotti & Reippel (2003) named and described
Eusaurosphargis under the assumption
that the original genus—
Saurosphargis—was
a
nomen dubium as the original (and
only) specimen of that taxon was destroyed during WWII.* Nosotti & Reippel
named it
Eusaurosphargis even
though—according to their own analysis—
Eusaurosphargis
was not a saurosphargid, but a sister taxon to
Hovasaurus, a very different marine reptile from the Permian. They
could not decide whether
Eusaurosphargis
was aquatic or terrestrial, but since it was routinely found to be closely allied
to Triassic marine reptiles, though, a life aquatic was the more obvious
choice.
