Brachypterygius

Ophthalmosaurus Temporal range: Late Jurassic, Kimmeridgian–Tithonian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Brachypterygius pseudoscythius
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	†Ichthyosauria
Family:	†Ophthalmosauridae
Genus:	†Brachypterygius von Huene, 1922
Species
†B. alekseevi (Arkangelsky, 2001 [originally Otschevia]) †B. cantabrigiensis (Lydekker, 1888) †B. extremus (Boulenger, 1904) von Huene, 1922 (type species) †B. mordax (McGowan, 1976 [originally Grendelius]) †B. pseudoscythius (Efimov, 1998 [originally Otschevia])
Synonyms
Brachypterygius zhuravlevi Arkangelsky, 1998 Grendelius McGowan, 1976 Otschevia Efimov, 1998

Brachypterygius is a genus of ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur known from England and European Russia. Brachypterygius was named by Friedrich von Huene in 1922 and the type species is therefore Brachypterygius extremus. The holotype of B. extremus is known from Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic of Kimmeridge Clay, area of Bath, England. McGowan, 1976 named a new genus of ichthyosaur, Grendelius mordax from Kimmeridgian stage of Kimmeridge Clay, Norfolk. In 1997, McGowan described additional specimens of the same taxon from the Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset, and referred it to a species of Brachypterygius. Efimov, 1998 named a new genus of ichthyosaur, Otschevia pseudoscythia on the basis of a single specimen (the holotype) from the Pseudoscythia Zone (late Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic) of Ulyanovsk, Volga region, Russia.^[1] Later, Arkangelsky, 1998 described Brachypterygius zhuravlevi from a Tithonian-stage locality in Saratov, Russia. Maisch & Matzke, 2000 considered both russian taxa to be synonyms of each other, and referred the new combination B. pseudoscythius to Brachypterygius. Thus, Grendelius and Otschevia are considered to be junior synonyms of Brachypterygius.^[2] Brachypterygius is closely related to Platypterygius and Caypullisaurus.^[3] Maisch, 2010 also referred Ochevia alekseevi (named by Arkangelsky, 2001 from the late Jurassic of Russia) and an ichthyosaur from the Early Cretaceous of England to this genus.^[4]

References

1. ^ Efimov VM. 1998. An Ichthyosaur, Otschevia pseudoscythica gen. et sp. nov. from the Upper Jurassic Strata of the Ulyanovsk Region (Volga Region). Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal 32 (2): 187-191.
2. ^ Maisch MW, Matzke AT. 2000. The Ichthyosauria. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie) 298: 1-159
3. ^ Fernández M. 2007. Redescription and phylogenetic position of Caypullisaurus (Ichthyosauria: Ophthalmosauridae). Journal of Paleontology 81 (2): 368-375.
4. ^ Michael W. Maisch (2010). "Phylogeny, systematics, and origin of the Ichthyosauria – the state of the art". Palaeodiversity 3: 151–214. http://www.palaeodiversity.org/pdf/03/Palaeodiversity_Bd3_Maisch.pdf.