Kingdom Animalia Superorder †Sauropterygia Phylum Chordata Order Plesiosauria | Class Reptilia Family †Cryptoclididae Rank Species | |
Genus †Abyssosaurus
Berezin, 2011 Similar Cryonectes, Avalonnectes, Lusonectes, Alexeyisaurus, Westphaliasaurus | ||
Abyssosaurus is an extinct genus of cryptoclidid plesiosaur known from the Early Cretaceous of Chuvash Republic, western Russia.
Contents
Discovery
Abyssosaurus is known only from the holotype specimen, Museum of Chuvash Natural Historical Society (MChEIO) no. PM/1, a partial postcranial skeleton. The holotype was collected in Poretskii District of Chuvashia, near Mishukovo, dating to the late Hauterivian faunal stage of the Early Cretaceous, about 133-130 million years ago. The specimen is thought to occupy an intermediate position between the Late Jurassic Tatenectes and Kimmerosaurus and the Late Cretaceous Aristonectes and Kaiwhekea. Berezin (2011) considered Abyssosaurus to represent the first reliable record of Aristonectidae in Russia. A large phylogenetic analysis performed by Roger Benson and Patrick Druckenmiller found it to be a derived cryptoclidid closely related to Colymbosaurus.
Etymology
Abyssosaurus was first named by A. Yu. Berezin in 2011 and the type species is Abyssosaurus nataliae.