[en] The description of a nearly complete skull from the late Albian of northwestern France
reveals previously unknown anatomical features of Platypterygius hercynicus (Kuhn 1946),
and of European Cretaceous ichthyosaurs in general. These include a wide frontal forming the
anteromedial border of the supratemporal fenestra, a parietal excluded from the parietal
foramen, and the likely presence of a squamosal, inferred from a very large and deep facet on
the quadratojugal. The absence of a squamosal has been considered as an autapomorphy of
the genus Platypterygius for more than ten years and has been applied to all known species by
default, but the described specimen casts doubt on this putative autapomorphy. Actually, it is
shown that all characters that have been proposed previously as autapomorphic for the genus
Platypterygius are either not found in all the species currently referred to this genus, or are
also present in other Ophthalmosauridae. Consequently, the genus Platypterygius must be
completely revised.
Research Center/Unit :
Paléontologie
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Fischer, Valentin ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géologie > Paléontologie animale et humaine
Language :
English
Title :
New data on the ichthyosaur Platypterygius hercynicus and its implications for the validity of the genus
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