Teleidosaurus is an extinct genus of carnivorous metriorhynchoid crocodyliform from Middle Jurassic (late Bajocian to early Bathonian stage) deposits of Normandy, France.Wilkinson LE, Young MT, Benton MJ. 2008. A new metriorhynchid crocodilian (Mesoeucrocodylia: Thalattosuchia) from the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic) of Wiltshire, UK. Palaeontology 51 (6): 1307-1333. The name Teleidosaurus means "Complete lizard", and is derived from the Greek - ("complete") and -sauros ("lizard").
Discovery
The type species was named Teleosaurus Calvadosii [Sic] by Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps in 1866;Eudes-Deslongchamps, J.A. 1866. Description d'une espèce inédite de Téléosaure des environs de Caen, le Teleosaurus calvadosii. Bulletin Soc. Linn. Normandie 2 (1): 112-118. however, it was his son, Eugène Eudes-Deslongchamps who erected the generic name Teleidosaurus later in 1869Eudes-Deslongchamps, E. 1869. Notice sur les animaux fossiles de la famille des Téléosauriens recueillis en Normandie. Mémoires Acad. Imp. Sci. et Arts et Belles-Lettres: 31-80. for Teleosaurus calvadosii. Teleidosaurus joberti from the Great Oolite Formation is a junior synonym of T. calvadosii. T. calvadosii is known from the plastotype NHM R.2681, a complete skull and mandible and from NHM 32612, the plastotype of T. joberti, fragmentary right mandible. The holotype lost during the Second World War. However, some plastoholotypes of T. calvadosii were saved in the Natural History Museum, London, (NHMUK PV R 2681), the National Museum of Natural History, France, and the Museum of Nancy.
Classification The only species within Teleidosaurus is the type species T. calvadosii. Both T. bathonicus and T. gaudryi where referred to Eoneustes. All species are from Calvados, Normandy of France. Phylogenetic analyses do not support the monophyly of Teleidosaurus.Mueller-Töwe IJ. 2005. Phylogenetic relationships of the Thalattosuchia. Zitteliana A45: 211–213. Once considered a metriorhynchid, Teleidosaurus was later recovered as non-metriorhynchid metriorhynchoid.
The cladogram below is from a 2024 study on the relationships of thalattosuchians.
References