Omphalosaurus
Encyclopedia
Omphalosaurus is an extinct genus
of marine reptile
from the Early Triassic
of Spitsbergen
.
It has generally been considered an ichthyopterygia
n until Motani (2000) showed that it lacks the basal synapomorphies
of Ichthyopterygia. However, Maisch (2010) described a new species and restated the affinity with Ichthyosauria.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of marine reptile
Marine reptile
Marine reptiles are reptiles which have become secondarily adapted for an aquatic or semi-aquatic life in a marine environment.The earliest marine reptiles arose in the Permian period during the Paleozoic era...
from the Early Triassic
Early Triassic
The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between 251 ± 0.4 Ma and 245 ± 1.5 Ma . Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic, which is a unit in chronostratigraphy...
of Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...
.
It has generally been considered an ichthyopterygia
Ichthyopterygia
Ichthyopterygia was a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1840 to designate the Jurassic ichthyosaurs that were known at the time, but the term is now used more often for both true Ichthyosauria and their more primitive early and middle Triassic ancestors.Basal ichthyopterygians were...
n until Motani (2000) showed that it lacks the basal synapomorphies
Synapomorphy
In cladistics, a synapomorphy or synapomorphic character is a trait that is shared by two or more taxa and their most recent common ancestor, whose ancestor in turn does not possess the trait. A synapomorphy is thus an apomorphy visible in multiple taxa, where the trait in question originates in...
of Ichthyopterygia. However, Maisch (2010) described a new species and restated the affinity with Ichthyosauria.