Steneosaurus

Name: Steneosaurus ‭(‬Narrow lizard‭)‬.
Phonetic: Sten-e-oh-sore-us.
Named By: Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire‭ ‬-‭ ‬1825.
Synonyms: Aeolodon,‭ ‬Leptocranius,‭ ‬Mycterosuchus,‭ ‬Mystriosaurus,‭ ‬Sericodon.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Archosauromorpha,‭ ‬Mesoeucrocodylia,‭ ‬Thalattosuchia,‭ ‬Teleosauridae.
Species: S. rostromajor (type).
Diet: Piscivore.
Size: Unavailable.
Known locations: ‬France.
Time period: Late Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial remains of a snout.




       Steneosaurus is a genus of teleosaurid crocodile that lived during the late Jurassic of Europe.‭ ‬As a genus Steneosaurus once had a great many species attributed to the genus,‭ ‬but over the years this was a result of what is known as the wastebasket taxon effect This is where a genus is based upon a sketchy set of fossil remains which then have other sets of fossils assigned to the genus based upon superficial similarity.‭ ‬Over the years several species have been moved out of Steneosaurus,‭ ‬culminating in a‭ ‬2020‭ ‬review of the genus‭ (‬Johnson et al‭)‬.‭ ‬At the time of writing the only recognised species of Steneosaurus is S.‭ ‬rostromajor,‭ ‬and that is based upon partial snout remains.‭ ‬Today the genus is regarded as dubious.

Further reading
-‭ ‬The Late Jurassic crocodiles of the Langenberg near Oker,‭ ‬Lower Saxony‭ (‬Germany‭)‬,‭ ‬and description of related materials‭ (‬with remarks on the history of quarrying the‭ “‬Langenberg Limestone‭” ‬and‭ “‬Obernkirchen Sandstone‭”)‬,‭ ‬N.‭ ‬Knotschke‭ ‬-‭ ‬2006.
-‭ ‬High diversity of thalattosuchian crocodylians and the niche partition in the Solnhofen Sea,‭ ‬M.‭ ‬B.‭ ‬Andrade‭ & ‬M.‭ ‬T.‭ ‬Young‭ ‬-‭ ‬2008.
- New specimen and revision of the late Jurassic teleosaurid 'Steneosaurus' megarhinus. - PeerJ Preprints. 3: e1351v1. - D. Foffa, M. T. Youong, S. L. Brusatte & L. Steel - - 2015.
- Emptying the wastebasket: a historical and taxonomic revision of the Jurassic crocodylomorph Steneosaurus. - Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 189 (2): 428–448. - Michela M. Johnson, Mark T. Young & Stephen L. Brusatte - 2020.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Random favourites