Baptanodon is an ichthyosaur of the Late Jurassic period (160-156 million years ago), named for its supposed lack of teeth (although teeth of this genus have since been discovered). It had a graceful long dolphin-shaped body, and its jaws were well adapted for catching squid. Major fossil finds of this genus have been recorded in North America. The type species, Sauranodon natans, was originally included under Sauranodon in 1879,O. C. Marsh. 1879. A new order of extinct reptiles (Sauranodonta), from the Jurassic Formation of the Rocky Mountains. The American Journal of Science and Arts, series 3 but this name was preoccupied.
Discovery and species Baptanodon is a replacement name for Sauranodon applied to ichthyosaur material in 1879 and was moved to its own genus Baptanodon in 1880 when Sauranodon was found to be preoccupied. Baptanodon was considered a junior synonym of Ophthalmosaurus by Maisch & Matzke (2000).Maisch MW, Matzke AT. 2000. The Ichthyosauria. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie) 298: 1-159. However, cladistic analyses published in the 2010s indicate that Baptanodon is not congeneric with Ophthalmosaurus icenicus.Ilaria Paparella; Erin E. Maxwell; Angelo Cipriani; Scilla Roncacè; Michael W. Caldwell (2017). "The first ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur from the Upper Jurassic of the Umbrian–Marchean Apennines (Marche, Central Italy)". Geological Magazine. 154 (4): 837–858. doi:10.1017/S0016756816000455.
Classification The cladogram below follows Fischer et al. 2012.
Palaeobiology Fossils of Baptanodon have been found in the Oxfordian-age Sundance Formation of Wyoming, which also has yielded fossils of the cryptoclidids Tatenectes and Pantosaurus, and the pliosaurid Megalneusaurus.Marsh, O. C., 1880, Note on Sauranodon: American Journal of Science, 3rd series, v. 19, n. 4, p. 491.Marsh, O. C., 1895, The Reptilia of the Baptanodon Beds: American Journal of Science, 3rd series, v. 34., n. 299, p. 405-406.
See also List of ichthyosaurs Timeline of ichthyosaur research
References