Spitrasaurus
Name:
Spitrasaurus
(Spitsbergen Travel lizard).
Phonetic: Spit-rah-sore-us.
Named By: Espen M. Knutsen, Patrick S.
Druckenmiller & Jørn H. Hurum - 2012.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Plesiosauria, Cryptoclididae?
Species: S. wensaasi
(type), S. larseni.
Diet: Piscivore.
Size: Uncertain dur to lack of remains.
Known locations: Norway, Spitsbergen -
Agardhfjellet Formation.
Time period: Tithonian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial remains of at least
two individuals, including partial cranial remains and cervical
(neck) vertebrae.
The
original
2012 paper of the plesiosaur
Spitrasaurus
included the description
of not one but
two species for the genus. The type species, S.
wensaasi (PMO
219 718) is described from sixty articulated cervical vertebrae
believed to have come from a juvenile individual. S.
larseni
(SVB 1450) is also known from cervical vertebrae, though not as
well preserved as those of the type species, though S.
larseni
also has partial skull remains attributed to it.
The
genus name Spitrasaurus
means ‘Spitra lizard’ and is based upon a portmanteau formed from
Spitsbergen Travel.
Further reading
- Two new species of long-necked plesiosaurians (Reptilia:
Sauropterygia) from the Upper Jurassic (Middle Volgian)
Agardhfjellet Formation of central Spitsbergen - Espen M.
Knutsen, Patrick S. Druckenmiller & Jørn H. Hurum -
2012.
- Faunal turnover of marine tetrapods during the Jurassic-Cretaceous
transition - Espen M. Knutsen & Patrick S.
Druckenmiller
- 2013.
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