Ichthyopterygia

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Ichthyopterygians
Utatsusaurus BW.jpg
Utatsusaurus
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Ichthyosauriformes
Superorder: Ichthyopterygia
Owen, 1840
Subgroups

See text.

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Ichthyopterygia ("fish flippers") was a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1840 to designate the Jurassic ichthyosaurs that were known at the time, but the term is now used more often for both true Ichthyosauria and their more primitive early and middle Triassic ancestors.[1][2]

Basal ichthyopterygians (prior to and ancestral to true Ichthyosauria) were mostly small (a meter or less in length) with elongate bodies and long spool shaped vertebrae, indicating that they swam in a sinuous eel-like manner. This allowed for quick movements and maneuverability that were an advantage in shallow-water hunting.[3] Even at this early stage they were already very specialised animals with proper flippers, and would have been incapable of movement on land.

These animals seem to have been widely distributed around the coast of the northern half of Pangea, as they are known the Late Olenekian and Early Anisian (early part of the Triassic period) of Japan, China, Canada, and Spitsbergen (Norway). By the later part of the Middle Triassic they were extinct, having been replaced by their descendents the true ichthyosaurs.

Taxonomy

Phylogeny

Below is a cladogram modified from Cuthbertson et al., 2013.[4]

Ichthyopterygia


Parvinatator wapitiensis



Utatsusaurus hataii





Xinminosaurus catactes


Eoichthyosauria
Grippidia

Grippia longirostris



Gulosaurus helmi



Ichthyosauria sensu Motani (1999)

Chaohusaurus geishanensis




Cymbospondylus



Mixosauria

Mixosaurus cornalianus



Phalarodon atavus




Toretocnemidae

Qianichthyosaurus zhoui



Toretocnemus californicus




Shastasauria

Shonisaurus popularis




Shastasaurus pacificus



Callawayia neoscapularis






Guizhouichthyosaurus tangae




Besanosaurus leptorhynchus




Californosaurus perrini



Parvipelvia













References

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General references

External links

simple:Ichthyopterygia