Nathalie Bardet

J. Sciau, Pascal Godefroit

Academic paper

Palaeontology

42

Part 5

927-952

Plesiosaurus tournemirensis Sciau, Crochet and Mattei, based on a nearly complete skeleton with skull from the Upper Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of Tournemire (Aveyron Department, southern France), is here redescribed and reinterpreted. Comparisons with other plesiosaurs indicate that it belongs to a new genus, Occitanosaurus. O.tournemirensis is characterised mainly by it's spatulate premaxillae and short facial process, very high post-orbital broadly contacting posterior ramus of the maxilla, trapezoidal jugal excluded from the orbital margin, orbit diagonally oriented, temporal fenestrae with a sigmoidal anterior margin, 43 cervical vertebrae, powerful interclavicle-clavicle complex, and coracoids with a pointed protuberance on the lateral border and expanded posterolateral cornea. Cranial and cervical vertebra features show that this new genus is undoubtedly a representative of the Elasmosauridae. A preliminary cladistic analysis of this long-necked genus reveals that, within Elasmosauridae, Occitanosaurus is a close relative of Microcleidus and Muraenosaurus

Sauropterygia

English