Nothosaurus

Image:Nothosaurus mirabilis 01.jpg

File:Nothosaurus BW.jpg

Nothosaurus was a semi-oceanic animal which probably had a lifestyle similar to that of today's seals. It was about {{convert|4|m|ft}}, with long, webbed toes and possibly a fin on its tail.{{cite book |editor=Palmer, D.|year=1999 |title= The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals|publisher= Marshall Editions|location=London|page= 72|isbn= 978-1-84028-152-1}} However, some species such as N. zhangi and N. giganteus were larger, up to {{convert|5|-|7|m|ft}}.{{cite journal|last1=Liu|first1=Jun|title=A gigantic nothosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Middle Triassic of SW China and its implications for the Triassic biotic recovery|journal=Scientific Reports|date=27 November 2014|pmc=4245812|pmid=25429609|doi=10.1038/srep07142|volume=4|page=7142}} When swimming, Nothosaurus would use its tail, legs, and webbed feet to propel and steer it through the water. The skull was broad and flat, with long jaws, lined with needle teeth, it probably caught fish and other marine creatures. Trackways attributed, partly by process of elimination, to a nothosaur, that were reported from Yunnan, China in June 2014, were interpreted as the paddle impressions left as the animals dug into soft seabed with rowing motions of their paddles, churning up hidden benthic creatures that they snapped up.[http://www.livescience.com/46244-marine-reptiles-rowed.html (LiveScience) Tia Ghose, "Ancient long-necked 'sea monsters' rowed their way to prey", reporting the scientific article published in Nature Communications 11 June 2014: accessed 28 November 2014.] Once caught, few animals would be able to shake themselves free from the mouth of Nothosaurus.

In many respects its body structure resembled that of the much later plesiosaurs, but it was not as well adapted to an aquatic environment. It is thought that one branch of the nothosaurs may have evolved into pliosaurs such as Liopleurodon, a short-necked plesiosaur that grew up to {{convert|6.4|m|ft}}, and the long-necked Cryptoclidus, a fish eater with a neck as long as {{convert|1.3|m|ft}}.

Image:Nothosaurus jagisteus.JPG

There are nearly a dozen known species of Nothosaurus. The type species is N. mirabilis, named in 1834 from the Germanic Muschelkalk. Other species include N. giganteus (previously known as Paranothosaurus) from Osnabrück, Germany;{{cite journal |last=Diedrich |first=C. |year=2009 |title=The vertebrates of the Anisian/Ladinian boundary (Middle Triassic) from Bissendorf (NW Germany) and their contribution to the anatomy, palaeoecology, and palaeobiogeography of the Germanic Basin reptiles |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=273 |issue=1 |pages=1–16|doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.10.026 |title-link=Germanic Basin |bibcode=2009PPP...273....1D }} N. juvenilis, also from Germany;{{cite journal |last=Rieppel |first=O. |year=1994 |title=The status of the sauropterygian reptile Nothosaurus juvenilis from the Middle Triassic of Germany |journal=Palaeontology |volume=37 |pages=733–745}} N. edingerae from the Upper Muschelkalk and Lower Keuper;{{cite journal |last=Rieppel |first=O. |author2=Wild, R. |year=1994 |title=Nothosaurus edingerae Schultze, 1970: diagnosis of the species and comments on its stratigraphical occurrence |journal=Stuttgarter Beiträge für Naturkunde, Serie B}} N. haasi and N. tchernovi from Makhtesh Ramon, Israel;{{cite journal |last=Rieppel |first=O. |author2=Mazin, J.-M. |author3= Tchernov, E. |year=1997 |title=Speciation along rifting continental margins: a new Nothosaur from the Negev (Israël) |journal=Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Série IIA |volume=325 |issue=12 |pages=991–997 |doi=10.1016/s1251-8050(97)82380-4|bibcode=1997CRASE.325..991R }}{{cite journal |last=Rieppel |first=O. |author2=Mazin, J.-M. |author3= Tchernov, E. |year=1999 |title=Sauropterygia from the Middle Triassic of Makhtesh Ramon, Negev, Israel |journal=Fieldiana |volume=1 |issue=40}} N. cymatosauroides from the Spanish Muschelkalk;{{cite journal |last=Rieppel |first=O. |author2=Hagdorn, H. |year=1998 |title=Fossil reptiles from the Spanish Muschelkalk (mont-ral and alcover, province Tarragona) |journal=Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=77–97 |doi=10.1080/08912969809386575}} N. jagisteus from the Upper Muschelkalk of Hohenlohe, Germany;{{cite journal |last=Shang |first=Q.-H. |year=2007 |title=New information on the dentition and tooth replacement of Nothosaurus (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) |journal=Palaeoworld |volume=16 |issue=1–3 |pages=254–263 |doi=10.1016/j.palwor.2007.05.007}} and N. youngi, N. yangjuanensis (and its junior synonym N. rostellatus) and the recently named N. zhangi from Guizhou, China.{{cite journal |last=Li |first=J. |author2=Rieppel, O. |year=2004 |title=A new nothosaur from Middle Triassic of Guizhou, China |journal= Vertebrata PalAsiatica |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=1–12}}{{cite journal |last=Jiang |first=W. |author2=Maisch, M. W. |author3=Hao, W. |author4=Sun, Y. |author5= Sun, Z. |year=2006 |title= Nothosaurus yangjuanensis n. sp. (Reptilia, Sauropterygia, Nothosauridae) from the middle Anisian (Middle Triassic) of Guizhou, southwestern China |journal=Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte |volume=2006 |issue=5 |pages=257–276|doi=10.1127/njgpm/2006/2006/257 }}{{cite journal |last=Shang |first=Q.-H. |year=2006 |title=A new species of Nothosaurus from the early Middle Triassic of Guizhou，China |journal=Vertebrata PalAsiatica |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=237–249}} Several species have been described from the Lower Muschelkalk in Winterswijk, the Netherlands, including N. marchicus{{cite journal |last=Albers |first=P. C. H. |year=2005 |title=A new specimen of Nothosaurus marchicus with features that relate the taxon to Nothosaurus winterswijkensis |journal=Vertebrate Palaeontology |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=1–7}} (and its junior synonym N. winterswijkensis) and N. winkelhorsti. Recently, the long considered lost type material of N. schimperi Meyer, 1842 from the Lower Muschelkalk of Soultz-les-Bains, Alsace, France, has been rediscovered and a lectotype has been designated.{{cite journal |last=Brignon |first=A. |year=2021 |title=L'histoire de la paléontologie des vertébrés dans le Trias alsacien jusqu'au début du XXe siècle |journal=Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire naturelle et d'Ethnographie de Colmar |volume=77 |issue=8 |pages=70–136}}

Klein and Albers (2009) conducted a phylogenetic analysis, but did not test the monophyly of Nothosaurus, as other nothosaurids were not included in their analysis.{{cite journal |last=Klein |first=N. |author2=Albers, P. C. H. |year=2009 |title=A new species of the sauropsid reptile Nothosaurus from the Lower Muschelkalk of the western Germanic Basin, Winterswijk, The Netherlands |journal=Acta Palaeontologica Polonica |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=589–598 |doi=10.4202/app.2008.0083|doi-access=free }}

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|1=N. haasi

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|4=N. jagisteus}}

|3=N. marchicus

|4=N. winterswijkensis

|5=N. youngi

|6=N. yangiuanensis}}

|2=N. juvenilis

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Several other species have been named but are now generally considered invalid. One such species, N. procerus, is now considered a junior subjective synonym of N. marchicus.{{cite journal |last=Schroder |first=H. |year=1914 |title=Wirbeltiere der Riidersdorfer Trias |journal=Abhandlungen der Preussischen Geologischen Landesanstalt |series=Neue Folge |volume=65 |pages=1–98}}{{cite journal |last=Rieppel |first=O. |author2=Wild, R. |year=1996 |title=A revision of the genus Nothosaurus (Reptilia. Sauropterygia) from the Germanic Triassic with comments on the status of Conchiosaurus clavatus |journal=Fieldiana |volume=1 |issue=34 |pages=1–82}} Other species now considered junior synonyms of N. marchicus include N. crassus, N. oldenburgi, N. raabi, N. schroderi, N. venustus and the recently named N. winterswijkensis.{{cite journal |last=Albers |first=P.C.H. |date=August 2011 |title=New Nothosaurus skulls from the Lower Muschelkalk of the western Lower Saxony Basin (Winterswijk, the Netherlands) shed new light on the status of Nothosaurus winterswijkensis |journal=Netherlands Journal of Geosciences |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=15–22 |doi=10.1017/S0016774600000639|s2cid=86305887 |doi-access=free }} Junior synonyms of N. giganteus, the second largest Nothosaurus species, include N. andriani, N. angustifronis, N. aduncidens, N. baruthicus and N. chelydrops.

A species level phylogenetic analysis of Nothosauridae was performed by Liu et al. (2014), and included all known valid species of the family and Nothosaurus apart from Lariosaurus stensioi (type of Micronothosaurus), Nothosaurus cymatosauroides, and Ceresiosaurus lanzi. Due to the inclusion of other nothosaurids other than Nothosaurus, the monophyly of Nothosaurus was tested for the first time. The analysis found both Lariosaurus and Nothosaurus to be polyphyletic in regard to each other and all the other genera of the family, making a systematic revision of these two genera necessary. Below, their results are shown with type species of named nothosaurid genera noted.{{cite journal |author1=Jun Liu |author2=Shi-xue Hu |author3=Olivier Rieppel |author4=Da-yong Jiang |author5=Michael J. Benton |author6=Neil P. Kelley |author7=Jonathan C. Aitchison |author8=Chang-yong Zhou |author9=Wen Wen |author10=Jin-yuan Huang |author11=Tao Xie |author12=Tao Lv |year=2014 |title=A gigantic nothosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Middle Triassic of SW China and its implication for the Triassic biotic recovery |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=4 |pages=Article number 7142 |doi=10.1038/srep07142 |pmid=25429609 |pmc=4245812}} Later, in 2017, the species N. juvenilis, N. youngi, and N. winkelhorsti were formally moved to Lariosaurus.{{cite journal |first1=W.-B. | last1 = Lin |first2=D.-Y. | last2 = Jiang |first3=O. | last3 = Rieppel |first4=R. | last4 = Motani |first5=C. | last5 = Ji |first6=A. | last6 = Tintori |first7=Z.-Y. | last7 = Sun |first8=Min | last8 = Zhou |year=2017 |title=A new specimen of Lariosaurus xingyiensis (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Ladinian (Middle Triassic) Zhuganpo Member, Falang Formation, Guizhou, China |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=e1278703 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2017.1278703 | s2cid = 90181915 }}

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• Parker, Steve. Dinosaurus: the complete guide to dinosaurs. Firefly Books Inc, 2003. Pg. 384

{{Reflist}}

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• Dixon, Dougal (2006). The Complete Book of Dinosaurs. Hermes House.
• Haines, Tim, and Paul Chambers. The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life. Pg. 64. Canada: Firefly Books Ltd., 2006

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{{Portal|Paleontology}}

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Category:Triassic reptiles of Asia

Category:Triassic reptiles of Europe

Category:Nothosaurs

Category:Triassic sauropterygians

Category:Triassic reptiles of Africa

Category:Early Triassic first appearances

Category:Olenekian genera

Category:Anisian genera

Category:Ladinian genera

Category:Carnian genera

Category:Norian genus extinctions

Category:Sauropterygian genera

Category:Fossil taxa described in 1834