Palvennia

Palvennia is an extinct genus of ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurian known from the uppermost Jurassic of Central Spitsbergen, Norway. It was named for PalVenn, the Friends of the Palaeontological Museum in Oslo, whose expedition led to the discovery of the type specimen. Palvennia is known from a single skull from the Slottsmøya Member of the Agardhfjellet Formation (middle Volgian/late Tithonian, Late Jurassic). The skull is 860 mm long, but is unusual in having a very short rostrum (~0.6× the skull length), similar to Ichthyosaurus breviceps. Because of this, the orbit seems very large (0.34× the skull length), but this may be effected by crushing. The single and only known species is Palvennia hoybergeti Druckenmiller et al., 2012.