Cryptoclididae

Cryptoclididae is a family of medium-sized plesiosaurs that existed from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. They had long necks, broad and short skulls and densely packed teeth. They fed on small soft-bodied preys such as small fish and crustaceans. The earliest members of the family appeared during the early Bajocian, and they represented the dominant group of long-necked plesiosaurs during the latter half of the Jurassic.[3]

Cryptoclidids
Temporal range:
Middle Jurassic - Early Cretaceous,
Skeleton of Cryptoclidus eurymerus at the Museum of Paleontology, Tuebingen
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Sauropterygia
Order: Plesiosauria
Clade: Cryptoclidia
Family: Cryptoclididae
Williston, 1925
Genera
Life restoration of Muraenosaurus

Classification

In 2010, two supposed late Cretaceous members of the group were reclassified as other kinds of plesiosauroids. Kaiwhekea was reclassified to Leptocleididae, and Aristonectes was transferred to Elasmosauridae.[4]

Cladogram based on Ketchum and Benson (2010):[4]

Cryptoclididae

Muraenosaurus

Tricleidus

Cryptoclidus

Kimmerosaurus

References

  1. Roberts AJ, Druckenmiller PS, Cordonnier B, Delsett LL, Hurum JH. 2020. A new plesiosaurian from the Jurassic–Cretaceous transitional interval of the Slottsmøya Member (Volgian), with insights into the cranial anatomy of cryptoclidids using computed tomography. PeerJ 8:e8652 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8652
  2. Gasparini, Z.; Bardet, N. & Iturralde-Vinent, M. (2002). "A new cryptoclidid plesiosaur from the Oxfordian (Late Jurassic) of Cuba" (PDF). Geobios. 35 (2): 201–211. doi:10.1016/s0016-6995(02)00019-0.
  3. Fischer, Valentin; Weis, Robert; Thuy, Ben (2021-02-22). "Refining the marine reptile turnover at the Early–Middle Jurassic transition". PeerJ. 9: e10647. doi:10.7717/peerj.10647. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 7906043. PMID 33665003.
  4. Ketchum, H. F.; Benson, R. B. J. (2010). "Global interrelationships of Plesiosauria (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) and the pivotal role of taxon sampling in determining the outcome of phylogenetic analyses". Biological Reviews. 85 (2): 361–392. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.2009.00107.x. PMID 20002391. S2CID 12193439.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.