Purranisaurus
Extinct genus of reptiles
Purranisaurus is an extinct genus of marine crocodyliform from the Late Jurassic aged Vaca Muerta of Argentina. Rusconi originally regarded Purranisaurus potens (the type species) to be a plesiosaur; however, Gasparini demonstrated that it was in fact a metriorhynchid crocodyliform, and that may be a junior synonym of Metriorhynchus. It was about 3.3 m (11 ft) long.
01Taxonomy and phylogeny
In the 2000s phylogenetic analysis has shown that Purranisaurus is a distinct metriorhynchid genus. A subsequent study expanded the genus Purranisaurus to include Metriorhynchus casamiquelai and M. westermanni. Following the re-description of the holotype of the type species, only that species is now referred to Purranisaurus.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Purranisaurus”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Suchodus BW.jpg by User:ArthurWeasley, CC BY 2.5
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