Kingdom Animalia Family †Ophthalmosauridae Species †A. bitumineus Rank Genus | Class Reptilia Subfamily †Platypterygiinae Phylum Chordata Order Ichthyosaur | |
Similar Aegirosaurus, Caypullisaurus, Ichthyosaur, Barracudasauroides, Acamptonectes | ||
Athabascasaurus is an extinct genus of platypterygiine ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur known from Alberta, Canada.
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Description
Athabascasaurus is known from the holotype TMP 2000.29.01, articulated nearly complete postcranial skeleton and nearly complete skull preserved in dorsal view, missing the premaxilla. It was collected in 2000 on the western side of the Syncrude Canada Ltd.'s Base Mine, an open-pit mine near Fort McMurray. The specimen was found in the Wabiskaw Member of the Clearwater Formation, which dates to the earliest Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch, about 112 million years ago. Recent cladistic analyses found it to be most closely related to "Platypterygius" australis, and to nest within Platypterygiinae. The specimen resides at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
Etymology
Athabascasaurus was first named by Patrick S. Druckenmiller and Erin E. Maxwell in 2010 and the type species is Athabascasaurus bitumineus. The generic name is derived from the name of the Athabasca River, which runs through Athabasca oil sands area where the holotype was collected, and sauros, Greek for "lizard". The specific name refers to the fact that it was recovered at an oilsand mine.