Nothosaur

Live reconstruction of Ceresiosaurus calcagnii. This nothosaurs is known from Monte San Giorgio, reaching 2-3 meters in length.

• Europe
• Asia

Nothosaurs ( Nothosauria ) or bastard lizards are a group of extinct reptiles diapsider ( Diapsida ) from the group of Sauropterygia ( " lizard flippers ").

They occurred during the middle and upper Triassic, specifically around today's Mediterranean and southern Germany in the foothills of the western Tethys and in South China. There were reptiles that lived in rivers and coastal areas and were able to move on land. Their front legs had adapted to the aquatic life and have been streamlined, however, the hind legs still looked like the legs of country living from. The skull was flat and viewed from above elongate triangular, it is somewhat reminiscent of the skull of a crocodile. The pointed and slightly curved teeth in the front of the snout were quite large and the teeth of the upper and lower jaw meshed to form a so-called Reuse bite. Thus the nothosaurs fish caught.

The nothosaurs include a variety of species that can be put into three size classes.

• The largest nothosaurs Type Nothosaurus giganteus was approximately 3.8 m long, the skull was 48.5 cm in length. N. giganteus is stronger then other nothosaurs.
• The average size class is occupied by the type species Nothosaurus mirabilis. These animals were 2 to 3 m long and are the only nothosaurs long spinous processes of the vertebrae. The holotype ( has been described in which the type for the first time scientifically ) as well as numerous skulls and other skeletal parts are exhibited in the Museum Urwelt Upper Franconia in Bayreuth.
• The group of small nothosaurs includes all other species. They were not more than 1 to 1.5 m.

Families and genera

• Simosauridae
• Germanosauridae
• Nothosauridae Anomosaurus
• Ceresiosaurus
• Chinchenia
• Kwangsisaurus
• Lariosaurus
• Metanothosaurus
• Nothosaurus
• Proneusticosaurus
• Sanchiaosaurus