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Concept
Pliosaurus
Summary
Pliosaurus (meaning 'more lizard') is an extinct genus of thalassophonean pliosaurid known from the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian stages (Late Jurassic) of Europe and South America. Their diet would have included fish, cephalopods, and marine reptiles. This genus has contained many species in the past but recent reviews found only six (P. brachydeirus (type species), P. carpenteri, P. funkei, P. kevani, P. rossicus and P. westburyensis) to be valid, while the validity of two additional species awaits a petition to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Currently, P. brachyspondylus and P. macromerus are considered dubious, while P. portentificus is considered undiagnostic. Most species of Pliosaurus reached in length and in body mass, while P. rossicus and P. funkei may have reached or even exceeded in length and in body mass, being the largest plesiosaurs of all time. Species of this genus are differentiated from other pliosaurids based on seven autapomorphies, including teeth that are triangular in cross section.
Pliosaurus brachydeirus is the type species of the genus. It was first described and named by the English paleontologist Richard Owen in 1841, as a species of the wastebasket taxon Plesiosaurus in its own subgenus Pleiosaurus, creating Plesiosaurus (Pleiosaurus) brachydeirus. Later that year or in 1842, Owen published another study in which the species was relocated to its own genus, which he misspelled as Pliosaurus. As have been noted by several authors, Plesiosaurus (Pleiosaurus) is the original spelling of Pliosaurus, and therefore according to Article 32 of the ICZN, Pleiosaurus is the correct spelling of the generic name as well. However, because this spelling had been abandoned since Phillips (1871), Pliosaurus should be preserved according to Article 33.3.1 of the ICZN. The generic name is derived from πλειων, pleion, meaning "more" and σαυρος, sauros, meaning "lizard" in Ancient Greek, in reference to Owen' belief that Pliosaurus was more closely related to "saurians" (including crocodilians) than Plesiosaurus was.
Official source
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