- Diplosaurus
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Diplosaurus
Temporal range: Late Jurassic - Early CretaceousScientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Crocodylomorpha (unranked): Mesoeucrocodylia Family: Goniopholididae Genus: Diplosaurus
Marsh, 1877Species - D. felix Marsh, 1877 (type)
- D. vebbii (Cope 1874) Marsh, 1877
- D. felise Ostrom and McIntosh, 1999
- "D. nanus" Marsh, 1895 (nomen dubium)
Diplosaurus is an extinct genus of goniopholidid mesoeucrocodylian. Fossils have been found from the western United States and range from Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous in age. The genus was first named and described in a paper written in 1877 by Othniel Charles Marsh.[1] The generic name, derived from Greek διπλόος, diploos, "double", probably refers to the "biconcave vertebrae" Marsh mentions as a distinctive trait compared to modern forms. The type species is Diplosaurus felix. In 1890 Karl Alfred von Zittel recombined this with Goniopholis into a Goniopholis felix, but today this is generally rejected.
Along with D. felix, a second species of Diplosaurus was constructed in 1877 by Marsh after he recombined Hyposaurus vebbii, named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1874, with Diplosaurus into a new combination, Diplosaurus vebbii. D. nanus was named by Marsh in 1895 but is now considered to be a nomen dubium. In 1999, Diplosaurus felise was named on the basis of a specimen found in Lakes' Quarry 1 at Como Bluff, Wyoming, part of the Morrison Formation.[2]
References
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