Rewizja taksonomiczna wczesnojurajskich ichtiozaurów z kolekcji Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego
Abstract
Taxonomic revision of Early Jurassic ichthyosaurs from the collections of the University of Wrocław.
A b s t r a c t. Ichthyosaurs were a successful group of marine reptiles with an extensive fossil record and a wide geographic distribution. Many of their most spectacular fossils come from the Lower Jurassic deposits of the Posidonia Shale in southwestern Germany. The most common ichthyosaur genus from this unit is Stenopterygius. Two ichthyosaur specimens from the Posidonia Shale in the collections of the University of Wrocław were originally classified as belonging to species currently included within the genera Ichthyosaurus and Leptonectes, previously unreported from the Posidonia Shale. However, our qualitative and quantitative analyses suggest that the original taxonomic assignments of these specimens were incorrect and both of them represent indeterminate species of Stenopterygius.
A b s t r a c t. Ichthyosaurs were a successful group of marine reptiles with an extensive fossil record and a wide geographic distribution. Many of their most spectacular fossils come from the Lower Jurassic deposits of the Posidonia Shale in southwestern Germany. The most common ichthyosaur genus from this unit is Stenopterygius. Two ichthyosaur specimens from the Posidonia Shale in the collections of the University of Wrocław were originally classified as belonging to species currently included within the genera Ichthyosaurus and Leptonectes, previously unreported from the Posidonia Shale. However, our qualitative and quantitative analyses suggest that the original taxonomic assignments of these specimens were incorrect and both of them represent indeterminate species of Stenopterygius.