Umoonasaurus
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| Umoonasaurus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, Aptian |
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| Umoonasaurus demoscyllus from the Early Cretaceous of Australia | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Order: | Plesiosauria |
| Suborder: | Plesiosauroidea[1] |
| Family: | Leptocleididae |
| Genus: | Umoonasaurus |
| Species: | U. demoscyllus |
| Binomial name | |
| Umoonasaurus demoscyllus Kear, Schroeder & Lee, 2006 [2] |
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Umoonasaurus is an extinct genus of plesiosaur[1] belonging to the family Leptocleididae.[3] This genus lived approximately 115 million years ago (Aptian-Albian) in shallow seas covering parts of what is now Australia. It was a relatively small animal around 2.5 m (8 ft) long. An identifying trait of Umoonasaurus is three crest-ridges on its skull.[2]
Umoonasaurus is known from a relatively complete skeleton preserved as opal from Coober Pedy in South Australia. This specimen was prepared by Paul Willis at the Australian Museum, Sydney, and became the focus of a nationwide fundraising appeal coordinated by ABC TV's Quantum program[citation needed].
[edit] References
- ^ a b Ketchum, H. F., and Benson, R. B. J. (2010). "Global interrelationships of Plesiosauria (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) and the pivotal role of taxon sampling in determining the outcome of phylogenetic analyses". Biological Reviews 85: 361–392. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.2009.00107.x. PMID 20002391.
- ^ a b Kear BP, Schroeder NI, Lee MSY. 2006. An archaic crested plesiosaur in opal from the Lower Cretaceous high-latitude deposits of Australia. Biology Letters 2: 615–619.
- ^ Smith AS, Dyke GJ. 2008. The skull of the giant predatory pliosaur Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni: implications for plesiosaur phylogenetics. Naturwissenschaften e-published 2008.
[edit] External links
- http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060707_aquatic_reptile.html
- http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/public/contributionsupplementalmaterials/8/3/n/1/83n10t6p17011132/archive1.pdf
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