Platypterygius

Platypterygius kiprjanov

• North and South America
• Europe
• Russia
• India
• Australia

Platypterygius is a genus of ichthyosaur, whose fossil record extends from the Lower Cretaceous ( Berriasian ) to the Early Cretaceous ( Cenomanian ).

Fossils of animals were found on every continent except Africa and Antarctica from, but especially in Australia; the first finds reach 1865 at the Flinders River in Queensland. They were first described as Ichthyosaurus australis, then renamed Platypterygius australis and finally assigned Platypterygius longmani. The genus Platypterygius includes the geologically youngest Ichthyosaurierfossil. It dates from the upper Cenomanian of Bavaria, and was described in 1994.

Features

Platypterygius had the typical spindle-shaped body of the " ichthyosaur " and was a length from 5.40 to 6.90 meters reach. The jaws were long and narrow, the eyes much smaller than that of the closely related genus and riesenäugigen Ophthalmosaurus. The front flippers of Platypterygius were the widest of all ichthyosaurs ( Platypterygius = " wide finger "), which finger to a total of ten increased ( polydactyly ). In the longest finger a total of 30 individual bones were counted. The caudal fin was symmetrical and hypocerk. Platypterygius swam like all ichthyosaurs thunniform, so alone by striking the tail fin. 2001, the investigation of a skull with a computer tomograph that the bones of the inner ear were too thick to allow for echolocation as in toothed whales. But there was evidence to electric receptors, similar to those of some of today's fish, especially sharks.

In a fossil of Platypterygius from the Upper Cretaceous of Australia in the body a cub was found. Likewise, numerous fish, belemnites, young sea turtles Protostegidae the family and a bird have been found from the group of Enantiornithes in the stomach area.