Eurysaurus

Eurysaurus (meaning "wide lizard") is an extinct genus of plesiosaur, originally classed as a nothosaur, from the Early Jurassic of Echenoz-la-Meline, France, named in 1878. The type material, consisting of a cranium, teeth and five vertebrae, is now lost.Gaudry, a. 1878. Sur un grand reptile fossil (the Eurysaurus raincourti). Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des Séances de l ' Académie des Sciences, Paris, 86: 1031–1033. The type species is E. raincourti, and a second species, E. schafferi, was named in 1924 but it has since been absorbed into the unrelated genus Germanosaurus.O. Rieppel. 1997. Revision of the sauropterygian reptile genus Cymatosaurus v. Fritsch, 1894, and the relationships of Germanosaurus Nopcsa, 1928, from the Middle Triassic of Europe. Fieldiana: Geology, new series

History The holotype, first described in 1878 by Albert Gaudry, has since been lost. A new study based essentially on illustrations of the type material by Noè (2001) has considered Eurysaurus a nomen dubium, probably congeneric with the pliosaur Simolestes.Noè, LF 2001. A taxonomic and functional study of the Callovian (Middle Jurassic) Plesiosauroidea (Reptilia, Sauropterygia). Ph.D. thesis, University of Derby, Derby, UK. However, due to the stratigraphic difference of the two forms, it is possible that Eurysaurus was a separate genus in its own right.

Classification Gaudry in 1878 originally classified Eurysaurus as a nothosaur. In 2001, Noè reclassified Eurysaurus as a plesiosaur, possibly belonging to the Pliosauroidea.

Eurysaurus

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