Platypterygius

Platypterygius is a historically paraphyletic genus of platypterygiine ichthyosaur from the Cretaceous period. It was historically used as a wastebasket taxon, and most species within Platypterygius likely are undiagnostic at the genus or species level, or represent distinct genera, even being argued as invalid. While fossils referred to Platypterygius have been found throughout different continents, the holotype specimen was found in Germany. As Platypterygius contains multiple species not especially close to each other, little can be said in terms of shared characteristics. According to an analysis by Fischer (2012), all anatomical features used to unify Platypterygius species are either not actually present in each species, or much more widespread among unrelated ophthalmosaurs. Generally, species referred to this genus were large bodied macropredators based on their robust dentition. This is also supported by P. australis having been found with remains of sea turtles and birds (specifically, of the genus Nanantius) in its guts, as well as an unidentified pterosaur fossil with tooth marks that may be from this genus. In 1998, Arkhangelsky estimated that P. platydactylus was about long, while "P." americanus was about long. In 2010, Zammit and colleagues estimated that "P." australis was about long. The type species of Platypterygius was described in 1922 based on remains found in upper Aptian strata around Hannover, Germany. These remains however were not adequately described and to complicate matters further, destroyed during World War 2. In the time after its discovery however Platypterygius has become a catch-all genus for Cretaceous ichthyosaurs, creating the misconstrued view of post-Jurassic ichthyosaurs as being a single global genus lacking in diversity. Later research conducted in the 2000s and 2010s has repeatedly shown this to be false, with all of the autapomorphies previously used to define Platypterygius either not being present in all assigned species or also being present in other ophthalmosaurids.