Aegirosaurus
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| Aegirosaurus Fossil range: Late Jurassic |
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Aegirosaurus is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur, a fish-like marine reptile, from the Tithonian (Upper Jurassic) of Bavaria, Germany. Its remains were discovered in the Solnhofen limestone formations, the same formations that have yielded numerous well-known fossils, such as Archaeopteryx, Compsognathus and Pterodactylus.
Originally described by Wagner (1853) as Ichthyosaurus leptospondylus, it has had an unstable taxonomic history. It has also been named Ichthyosaurus trigonus posthumus, and identified with Macropterygius and Brachypterygius extremus. In 2000 Bardet and Fernandez decided that the all the remains associated with these different names should be assigned to a new genus and species, Aegirosaurus leptospondylus. The name means 'Aegir (teutonic god of the ocean) lizard with slender vertebrae'. Its size is uncertain.
[edit] References
Ichthyosaurus [1]
