Name:
Nothosaurus
(False lizard).
Phonetic: No-foe-sore-us.
Named By: M�nster - 1834.
Synonyms: Chondriosaurus, Conchiosaurus,
Conchriosaurus, Dracontosaurus, Dracosaururus, Dracosaurus,
Elmosaurus, Kolposaurus, Menodon, Oligolycus, Opeosaurus,
Paranothosaurus, Shingyisaurus.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Sauropterygia, Nothosauroidea, Nothosauridae, Nothosaurinae.
Species: N. mirabilis (type),
N. cristatus, N.
cymatosauroides, N. edingerae, N. giganteus, N. haasi,
N. jagisteus, N. juvenilis, N. marchicus, N. procerus,
N. rostellatus, N. tchernovi, N. winterswijkensis, N.
yangjuanensis, N. youngi, N. zhangi.
Diet: Piscivore/Carnivore.
Size: Most individuals about 4 meters long. Other
remains of certain species show that larger individuals could grow to
between 5 and 7 meters long.
Known locations: Europe, North Africa, China.
Time period: Anisian through to Norian of the
Triassic.
Fossil representation: Multiple specimens.
Nothosaurus
is representative of one of the dominant groups of marine reptiles of
the Triassic, the other main group being the primitive ichthyosaurs
like Cymbospondylus.
The nothosaurs
are often dubbed the seals of the
Triassic because while they were adapted for aquatic life, they still
held onto to clear terrestrial adaptations. This would see
Nothosaurus living and spending much of its time on
the coast where it
could dive into the sea in search of prey.
When
in the water Nothosaurus would have used a
combination of its tail and
its webbed feet to propel itself through the water. The jaws of
Nothosaurus were filled with long thin teeth that
pointed out of the
mouth and intermeshed together when the jaws were closed. These jaws
formed an effective prey trap for use in catching slippery prey like
fish, and were similar in arrangement to the later elasmosaurid
plesiosaurs
like Elasmosaurus
as well as some fish eating pterosaurs.
Despite the popular interpretation of Nothosaurus
being a dedicated
fish eater, it may have also tackled small and juvenile marine
reptiles as well. Evidence for this suggestion can be taken from the
presences of juvenile placodonts
like Cyamodus
inside the stomach of
the much smaller nothosaur Lariosaurus.
When
not searching for food in the sea Nothosaurus
probably spent most of
its time on land, although probably not so far as to lose sight of
the sea. Returning to land meant that Nothosaurus
would not have to
spend all of its time swimming in the ocean, as well as possibly
avoiding marine predators like sharks and possibly ichthyosaurs. The
land may not have been totally safe however as archosaur reptiles may
have been a threat if they were able to access the same coastal areas
that Nothosaurus used.
Although
Nothosaurus lived on land it remains uncertain if it
reproduced by
giving birth to live young or if it laid eggs. Fossils of nothosaurs
of other genera suggest that live birth was possible, and live birth
also seems to be the norm in the ichthyosaurs as well as possibly the
later plesiosaurs which are thought to have evolved from the
nothosaurs. The problem remains however of exactly when live birth in
marine reptiles started to occur.
Further reading
- Ein Nothosaurier-Sch�del aus dem Muschelkalk des Wadi Ramon (Negev,
Israel). - Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 83:119-125. -
G. Haas - 1980.
- The braincases of Simosaurus and Nothosaurus:
monophyly of the
Nothosauridae (Reptilia: Sauropterygia). - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology 14(1):9-23. - O. Rieppel - 1994.
- Nothosaurus edingerae Schultze, 1970: diagnosis
of the species and
comments on its stratigraphical occurrence. - Stuttgarter Beitr�ge f�r
Naturkunde, Serie B. - O. Rieppel & R. Wild - 1994.
- The status of the sauropterygian reptile Nothosaurus
juvenilis from
the Middle Triassic of Germany. - Palaeontology 37(4):733-745. - O.
Rieppel - 1995.
- A revision of the genus Nothosaurus (Reptilia:
Sauropterygia) from
the Germanic Triassic, with comments on the status of Conchiosaurus
clavatus. - Fieldiana: Geology, new series 34:1-82. - O. Rieppel
& R. Wild - 1996.
- The status of Shingyisaurus unexpectus from the
Middle Triassic of
Kweichou, China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18(3):541-544. - O.
Rieppel - 1998.
- A new species of the sauropterygian genus Nothosaurus
from the Lower
Muschelkalk of Winterswijk, The Netherlands. - Journal of Paleontology
77(4):738-744. - P. C. H. Albers & O. Rieppel - 2003.
- A new specimen of Nothosaurus marchicus with
features that relate the
taxon to Nothosaurus winterswijkensis. - Vertebrate
Palaeontology 3
(1): 1–7. - P. C. H. Albers - 2005.
- Nothosaurus yangjuanensis n. sp. (Reptilia,
Sauropterygia,
Nothosauridae) from the middle Anisian (Middle Triassic) of Guizhou,
southwestern China. - NeuesJahrbuch f�r Geologie und Pal�ontologie,
Monatshefte 5: 257–276. - W. Jiang, M. W. Maisch, W. Hao, Y. Sun
& Z. Sun - 2006.
- A new species of Nothosaurus from the early
Middle Triassic of
Guizhou, China. - Vertebrata PalAsiatica 44(3):237-249. - Q. -H. Shang
- 2006.
- New information on the dentition and tooth replacement of Nothosaurus
(Reptilia: Sauropterygia). - Palaeoworld 16: 254–263. - Q. -H. Shang -
2007.
- A new species of the sauropsid reptile Nothosaurus
from the Lower
Muschelkalk of the western Germanic Basin, Winterswijk, The
Netherlands. - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54 (4): 589–598. - N.
Klein & P. C. H. Albers - 2009.
- New Nothosaurus skulls from the Lower Muschelkalk of the western
Lower Saxony Basin (Winterswijk, the Netherlands) shed new light on the
status of Nothosaurus winterswijkensis. -
Netherlands Journal of
Geosciences. 90 (1): 15–22. - P. C. H. Albers - 2011.
- A gigantic nothosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) from the Middle
Triassic of SW China and its implications for the Triassic biotic
recovery. - Scientific Reports. 4: 7142. - Jun Liu - 2014.