In Depth
Although neither a nothosaur nor a plesiosaur, Pistosaurus appears to be closely related to both. Pistosaurus had both a stiffened spine and limbs adapted into flippers, but still retained a palate like a nothosaur and for this reason Pistosaurus is often considered an evolutionary offshoot of a type that appeared alongside plesiosaurs while still being from them. However in light of the current lack of pistosauroid sauropterygian fossils compared to the large number of plesiosaurs it seems that these types of marine reptiles were not as successful in the long term.
Pistosaurus is the type genus of the Pistosauridae and was the only member of this group until the discovery of Augustasaurus in 1997.
Further Reading
– Pistosaurus, a Middle Triassic Plesiosaur. – American Journal of Science, vol. 246, no. 1 – F. V. Huene – 1948. – Postcranial Skeleton of Pistosaurus and Interrelationships of the Sauropterygia (Diapsida.- Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 90, no. 2, 1987, pp. 109–131. – H. -D. Sues – 1987. – Evolutionary Implications of the Divergent Long Bone Histologies of Nothosaurus and Pistosaurus (Sauropterygia, Triassic). – BMC Evolutionary Biology, vol. 13. – Anna Krahl, Nicole Klein & P Martin Sander – 2013.
