Californosaurus
Californosaurus ('California lizard') is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur, an extinct marine reptile, from the Lower Hosselkus Limestone (Carnian, Late Triassic) of California, and also the Muschelkalk (Ladinian, Middle Triassic) of Germany.
Article
6 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- Description
- Biology
- See also
- References
- External links
Californosaurus ('California lizard') is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur, an extinct marine reptile, from the Lower Hosselkus Limestone (Carnian, Late Triassic) of California, and also the Muschelkalk (Ladinian, Middle Triassic) of Germany.
==Taxonomy== left|thumb|225px|Size comparison John Campbell Merriam (1902) described it as a new species of Shastasaurus, S. perrini, honouring Professor James Perrin Smith as discoverer, based on holotype UCMP 9119. He later recognized the species as generically distinct from the Shastasaurus type species, in 1905 erecting Delphinosaurus for S. perrini. However, Delphinosaurus had in 1853 by Eichwald been previously used for an ophthalmosaurid from Albian-Cenomanian deposits in European Russia, Delphinosaurus kiprijanoffii, and Oscar Kuhn (1934) provided the generic replacement name Californosaurus. Merriam (1938) independently erected Perrinosaurus to replace Delphinosaurus, but this is a junior objective synonym.