Ophthalmothule
Sign in to saveOphthalmothule (meaning "eye of the north"), was a cryptoclidid plesiosaur dating to the latest Volgian (around the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary), found in the Slottsmøya Member Lagerstätte of the Agardhfjellet Formation in Spitsbergen. The type species is O. cryostea.
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 236 inbound references to Ophthalmothule, and connects out to Elasmosauridae, Cryptoclididae and Plesiosauroidea.
It is catalogued under topics including Agardhfjellet Formation, Cryptoclididae and Fossils of Svalbard.
Vinony links it to 6 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Parent taxon
- Cryptoclididae
- Image
- Ophthalmothule-Fig-2-2x.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- taxon rank
- genus
- taxon name
- Ophthalmothule
- Commons category
- Ophthalmothule
- time period
- Early Cretaceous
Sources (1)
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Encyclopedic overview
2 sectionsContents
- Description
- References
Ophthalmothule (meaning "eye of the north"), was a cryptoclidid plesiosaur dating to the latest Volgian (around the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary), found in the Slottsmøya Member Lagerstätte of the Agardhfjellet Formation in Spitsbergen. The type species is O. cryostea.
== Description == thumb|250px|left|Size comparison thumb|left|Life restoration Ophthalmothule was a medium-sized plesiosaur, measuring long. It was noted to have unusually large eye sockets, which suggests a paleobiological specialization, such as deep water and/or nocturnal hunting. Along with Abyssosaurus, it is one of the youngest cryptoclidids known from boreal regions. The holotype is known from skeletal material that includes a complete cranium and a partial mandible, a complete and articulated cervical vertebrae, a set of pectoral and anterior to middle dorsal series, and the pectoral girdle and anterior humeri.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ophthalmothule” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.