A New Species of the Sauropsid ReptileNothosaurusfrom the Lower Muschelkalk of the Western Germanic Basin, Winterswijk, the Netherlands

Abstract

A nothosaur skull recently discovered from the Lower Muschelkalk (early Anisian)

Postcranial material of Nothosaurus marchicus from the Lower Muschelkalk (Anisian) of Winterswijk, The Netherlands, with remarks on swimming styles and taphonomy

“…In spite of the presence of several well-preserved skulls of A. heterodontus (Klein 2009) and Nothosaurus (Albers and Rieppel 2003;Klein and Albers 2009;Albers 2011) in Winterswijk, the lack of a pistosauroid cranium is notable as well.…”

“…In combination with the divergent morphology of the humerus (morphotype I), this may indicate either sexual dimorphism in N. marchicus or the presence of another nothosaur taxon, as was already discussed by Bickelmann and Sander (2008). NMNHL St 87289 is far too large to fit to the very small N. winkelhorsti skull (Klein and Albers 2009). Rieppel and Wild (1996) reported on an incompletely known, larger nothosaur species present in the Lower to Middle Muschelkalk of the Germanic Basin.…”

“…winkelhorsti Klein and Albers, 2009;N. zhangi Liu et al, 2014. Diagnosis: For cranial characters see Rieppel and Wild (1996), Rieppel (2000), Albers (2009), andAlbers (2011); for postcranial characters see Rieppel and Wild (1996), Rieppel (2000), and Bickelmann and Sander (2008).…”

“…Furthermore, one tiny complete skull (Palatodonta bleekeri Neenan et al 2013) (Albers 2011). The dwarfed N. winkelhorsti (Klein and Albers 2009), the second Nothosaurus species described from Winterswijk, differs principally in size and morphology from N. marchicus. Voeten et al (2014) described nothosaur bones that are larger than the typical size range of N. marchicus in Winterswijk, thereby possibly indicating the presence of another, larger nothosaur taxon or documenting a broader size range for N. marchicus.…”

First Triassic tetrapod (Sauropterygia, Nothosauridae) from Castilla y León: evidence of an unknown taxon for the Spanish record

“…The non-pachyostotic centra and neural arches in UPUAM 14072 are shared with the genus Nothosaurus within the clade Nothosauria, as well as the presence of platycoelous centra (Bickelmann and Sander, 2008). Nothosaurus is a sauropterygian taxon known by several species, whose fossils have been found in the Middle and lower Upper Triassic of Europe, China, Israel and Tunisia (Rieppel and Wild, 1996;Rieppel et al, 1997;Rieppel, 2000;2001;Albers and Rieppel, 2003;Li and Rieppel, 2004;Albers, 2005;Jiang et al, 2006;Shang, 2006;Bickelmann and Sander, 2008;Klein and Albers, 2009;Liu et al, 2014;Klein et al, 2015). Within this genus, the species Nothosaurus giganteus Münster 1834, presents autapomorphic neural arches according to Rieppel and Wild (1996) and Rieppel et al (1999).…”