Kingdom Animalia Node †Neoichthyosauria Order Ichthyosaur | Class Reptilia Phylum Chordata | |
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Node †Thunnosauria
Motani, 1999 Similar Ichthyosaur, Ophthalmosauridae, Chacaicosaurus, Hauffiopteryx, Leptonectidae | ||
Thunnosauria (Greek for "tuna lizard" - thunnos meaning "tuna" and sauros meaning "lizard") is an extinct clade of parvipelvian ichthyosaurs from the Early Jurassic to the early Late Cretaceous (Hettangian - Cenomanian) of Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Named by Ryosuke Motani, in 1999, it contains the basal taxa like Ichthyosaurus and Stenopterygius and the family Ophthalmosauridae. In thunnosaurs, the forefin at least twice as long as the hindfin.
Phylogeny
Thunnosauria is a node-based taxon defined in 1999 as "the last common ancestor of Ichthyosaurus communis and Stenopterygius quadriscissus and all of its descendants". The cladogram below follows the topology from a 2010 analysis by Patrick S. Druckenmiller and Erin E. Maxwell.