Merriamosauria
Sign in to saveAlso known as Merriamosaur, Merriamosaurs, Merriamosaurian, Merriamosaurians
Merriamosauria is an extinct clade of ichthyosaurs. It was named by Ryosuke Motani in his 1999 analysis of the relationships of ichthyopterygian marine reptiles and was defined in phylogenetic terms as a stem-based taxon including "the last common ancestor of Shastasaurus pacificus and Ichthyosaurus communis, and all of its descendants." The name honours John Campbell Merriam. Based on this definition, Merriamosauria includes most ichthyosaurs except for several Triassic groups such as the clade Mixosauria, the family Cymbospondylidae, and perhaps the family Toretocnemidae. Merriamosaurs are c
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 124 inbound references to Merriamosauria, and connects out to Ichthyopterygia, Hupehsuchia and Diapsid.
Vinony files it under Ichthyosauria, Late Triassic ichthyosaurs and Middle Triassic first appearances.
Vinony links it to 7 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- Ichthyosauria
- Image
- Shastasaurus pacificus.jpg
Show 2 more facts
- taxon name
- Merriamosauria
- Commons category
- Ichthyosauria
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Encyclopedic overview
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Merriamosauria is an extinct clade of ichthyosaurs. It was named by Ryosuke Motani in his 1999 analysis of the relationships of ichthyopterygian marine reptiles and was defined in phylogenetic terms as a stem-based taxon including "the last common ancestor of Shastasaurus pacificus and Ichthyosaurus communis, and all of its descendants." The name honours John Campbell Merriam. Based on this definition, Merriamosauria includes most ichthyosaurs except for several Triassic groups such as the clade Mixosauria, the family Cymbospondylidae, and perhaps the family Toretocnemidae. Merriamosaurs are characterized by features in their pectoral girdles and limb bones, including an extensive connection between the scapula and the coracoid bone, the absence of the first metacarpal and the absence of a pisiform bone.
In addition to Shastasaurus, this clade includes Shonisaurus, Guizhouichthyosaurus, an unnamed Norian taxon from Alaska, and many other genera.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Merriamosauria” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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