About: Utatsusaurus   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

Utatsusaurus is the earliest-known form of an ichthyopterygian (the group of marine reptiles that includes the ichthyosaurs), which lived in the early Triassic period (c. 245-250 millions years ago). Unlike the more advanced ichthyosaurs, Utatsusaurus has no dorsal fin and has a broad skull that tapers slowly toward the snout.

AttributesValues
rdfs:label
  • Utatsusaurus
rdfs:comment
  • Utatsusaurus is the earliest-known form of an ichthyopterygian (the group of marine reptiles that includes the ichthyosaurs), which lived in the early Triassic period (c. 245-250 millions years ago). Unlike the more advanced ichthyosaurs, Utatsusaurus has no dorsal fin and has a broad skull that tapers slowly toward the snout.
sameAs
dcterms:subject
dbkwik:fossil/prop...iPageUsesTemplate
Kingdom
  • Animalia
Name
  • Utatsusaurus
Caption
  • Life restoration of Utatsusaurus hataii.
fossil range
Species
  • (Shikama, Kamei & Murata, 1978)
  • * U. hataii
Genus
  • Utatsusaurus
Class
Family
  • (McGowan & Motani, 2003)
  • Utatsusauridae
Superorder
Phylum
abstract
  • Utatsusaurus is the earliest-known form of an ichthyopterygian (the group of marine reptiles that includes the ichthyosaurs), which lived in the early Triassic period (c. 245-250 millions years ago). Unlike the more advanced ichthyosaurs, Utatsusaurus has no dorsal fin and has a broad skull that tapers slowly toward the snout. For the size of the skull, the teeth are rather small, and arranged in a primitive groove. Utatsusaurus had small fins, with four toes instead of the usual five found in primitive ichthyosaurs. The tail had a long low fin, suggesting that the animal swam by undulation, rather than using its paddles and tail. Feeding on a diet of fish, Utatsusaurus reached a length of three meters (nine feet). Utatsusaurus has been found in Japan and Canada. Ryosuke Motani from the University of California, Berkeley and Nachio Minoura from Hokkaido University re-examined the fossils of Utatsusaurus in 1998 using computer imagery to reverse the distortion of the original skeleton. They found that Utatsusaurus was closely related to the lizard-like diapsid reptiles such as Petrolacosaurus, making ichthyopterygians a distant relative to lizards, snakes and crocodiles.
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