Excalibosaurus

Excalibosaurus Costini, the dark fossil in the background

• Somerset ( England)

Excalibosaurus ( for Excalibur and sauros Gr. = Lizard ) is a Ichthyosauriergattung whose fossil remains, an incomplete skeleton in 1984 were found in layers of the early Jurassic of Somerset. The fossil includes the skull, front fins and shoulder girdle, vertebrae and ribs and is now in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. There is only one kind Excalibosaurus Costini.

Features

Excalibosaurus had a spindle-shaped, has a length from 5.4 to 6.9 meters, reaching body. The upper jaw was extended and towered over the lower jaw addition, a feature that only occurs in Eurhinosaurus. The skull has no snout length of 78.5 cm, the upper jaw is 60 cm long. Apart from the longer upper jaw is similar to the skull of the ichthyosaurs tenuirostris. The teeth are slender and are also located on the free part of the upper jaw. The front flipper was half as long as the maxilla and thus shorter than in Eurhinosaurus its forelimbs reached the length of the upper jaw. The front flipper consisted of three fingers, some signs suggest a fourth. The middle finger had twelve members ( Hyperphalangie ).

System

Excalibosaurus was probably a predecessor of Eurhinosaurus and came himself from a shape resembling ichthyosaurs from. Together with Leptonectes and Eurhinosaurus Excalibosaurus is placed in a Eurhinosauria or Leptonectidae called taxon.