Name:
Cryopterygius
Cryopterygius (frozen wing (wing as in flipper)).
Phonetic: Cry-op-teh-re-ge-us.
Named By: Patrick S. Druckenmiller, J�rn H.
Hurum, Espen M. Knutsen & Hans Arne Nakrem - 2012.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Ichthyosauria, Ophthalmosauridae.
Species: C. kristiansenae
(type).
Diet: Piscivore/Carnivore.
Size: Length of the preserved holotype is 4.6
meters long. Length of the complete animal in life estimated about
5 - 5.5 meters long.
Known locations: Norway, Spitsbergen -
Agardhfjellet Formation, Slottsm�ya Member.
Time period: Tithonian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Single individual including
an almost complete articulated skull and post cranial skeleton,
lacking part of the tail.
First
discovered in 2009, the holotype specimen of Cryopterygius
was
found quite complete, only the posterior portion of the tail is
missing. The main length of Cryopterygius from
the tip of the snout
to the posterior regions of the body is just over four and a half
meters long, Depending upon how long the tail was, the total length
of Cryopterygius would be expected to be somewhere
between five and
five and a half meters long.
Cryopterygius
has been identified as an ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur.
This means
that Cryopterygius is related to the type genus of
the
Ophthalmosauridae Ophthalmosaurus
as well as other genera such as
Platypterygius,
Brachypterygius,
Mollesaurus
and Caypullisaurus
among many others.
Further reading
- Two new ophthalmosaurids (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) from the
Agardhfjellet Formation (Upper Jurassic: Volgian/Tithonian),
Svalbard, Norway - Norwegian Journal of Geology 92 (2-3):
311–339 - Patrick S. Druckenmiller, J�rn H. Hurum, Espen
M. Knutsen & Hans Arne Nakrem - 2012.