Trachelosaurus is an extinct genus of lizard-like early archosauromorph reptiles in the family Trachelosauridae.[1] It was originally described as a dinosaur[2] until it was redescribed as a "protorosaur" reptile by Robert L. Carroll in 1988.[3] The type species, T. fischeri, was described by F. Broili & E. Fischer in 1917[2] based on remains found in the Solling Formation (Buntsandstein), Bernburg, Germany.[4] A 2024 redescription identified Trachelosaurus as a long-necked and presumably aquatic reptile closely related to Dinocephalosaurus from the Guanling Formation of China.[5]
Trachelosaurus Temporal range: Early Triassic,
| |
---|---|
Holotype specimen | |
Reconstructed skeleton of the holotype | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Archosauromorpha |
Family: | †Trachelosauridae |
Genus: | †Trachelosaurus Broili & Fischer, 1917 |
Species: | †T. fischeri
|
Binomial name | |
†Trachelosaurus fischeri Broili & Fischer, 1917
|
Classification
editIn their 2024 redescription of Trachelosaurus, Spiekman and colleagues recovered it in a clade with the Chinese Dinocephalosaurus in a clade previously named Dinocephalosauridae in 2021. However, the principle of priority instructs that the name Trachelosauridae, which was first erected as a monotypic clade for Trachelosaurus, should be used instead. The results of their phylogenetic analyses are shown in the cladogram below:[5]
Tanysauria |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
edit- ^ O. Kuhn. (1971). Reptiles of the German Triassic. 1-105
- ^ a b F. Broili and E. Fischer. (1917). Trachelosaurus fischeri nov. gen. nov. sp. A new dinosaur from the Buntsandstein of Bernburg. Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen geologischen Landesanstalt zu Berlin 37(1):359-414
- ^ R. L. Carroll. (1988). Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution 1-698
- ^ H. H. Ecke. (1986). Palynologie des Zechsteins und Unteren Buntsandsteins im Germanischen Becken. Dissertation Georg-August-Universität Göttingen 1-117
- ^ a b Spiekman, Stephan N. F.; Ezcurra, Martín D.; Rytel, Adam; Wang, Wei; Mujal, Eudald; Buchwitz, Michael; Schoch, Rainer R. (2024-03-15). "A redescription of Trachelosaurus fischeri from the Buntsandstein (Middle Triassic) of Bernburg, Germany: the first European Dinocephalosaurus-like marine reptile and its systematic implications for long-necked early archosauromorphs". Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. 143 (1): 10. doi:10.1186/s13358-024-00309-6. ISSN 1664-2384.