rdfs:comment
| - Hupehsuchia is an order of enigmatic diapsid marine reptiles belonging to the class Sauropsida. The order was short-lasting, with a temporal range restricted to the Spathian age of the late Olenekian, spanning only a few million years of the Early Triassic. The order gets its name from Hubei Province, China, from which many specimens have been found. Of the entire order, Nanchangosauridae is the only recognized family. Hupehsuchians display an unusual combination of characteristics with other derived marine reptiles, including mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs, including polydactyly, narrow skull, and vivipary.
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abstract
| - Hupehsuchia is an order of enigmatic diapsid marine reptiles belonging to the class Sauropsida. The order was short-lasting, with a temporal range restricted to the Spathian age of the late Olenekian, spanning only a few million years of the Early Triassic. The order gets its name from Hubei Province, China, from which many specimens have been found. Of the entire order, Nanchangosauridae is the only recognized family. Hupehsuchians display an unusual combination of characteristics with other derived marine reptiles, including mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs, including polydactyly, narrow skull, and vivipary. The order consists of two genera, Hupehsuchus and Nanchangosaurus, of which, the former is the type genus. Determining the exact classification and phylogeny of this group remains difficult, and may be attributed to the limited knowledge of the fossil record of diapsid reptiles in the Late Permian and Early Triassic, as well as the great amount of convergence exhibited by secondarily aquatic reptiles.
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