| Eosauropterygia indet. |
| ilium |
| Dating uncertain – probably the boundary of Upper Röt Lower Muschelkalk (Anisian), Triassic |
| Upper Silesia, Poland |
Description
A specimen of a well-preserved ilium (hip bone) from a Triassic marine reptile belonging most probably to the Eosauropterygia.
The specimen is almost completely preserved, visible from the dorsolateral side. The part that originally protruded from the matrix is slightly eroded. The prepared parts of the specimen show well-preserved bone texture, most likely associated with muscle attachments.
The well-preserved bone surface suggests relatively rapid fossilization and a low degree of damage from transport and erosion.
The morphology of the ilia strongly correlates with the overall structure of the pelvic girdle. In this case, a similar morphology can be observed with specimens assigned to Nothosaurus in the literature. However, because we are discussing an isolated bone, a precise taxonomic assignment is impossible, so Eosauropterygia indet. seems to be the safest interpretation.
References
- Klein, N., Voeten, D. F. A. E., Lankamp, J., Bleeker, R., Sichelschmidt, O. J., Liebrand, M., Nieweg, D. C., & Martin Sander, P. (2015). Postcranial material of Nothosaurus marchicus from the Lower Muschelkalk (Anisian) of Winterswijk, The Netherlands, with remarks on swimming styles and taphonomy. Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 89(4), 961–981. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-015-0273-5
- Klein, N., Eggmaier, S., & Hagdorn, H. (2022). The redescription of the holotype of Nothosaurus mirabilis (Diapsida, Eosauropterygia)—A historical skeleton from the Muschelkalk (Middle Triassic, Anisian) near Bayreuth (southern Germany). PeerJ, 10, e13818. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13818
- Shang, Q., Li, C., WANG, W., & Palasiatica, V. (2022). Nothosaurus luopingensis sp. Nov. (Sauropterygia) from the Anisian, Middle Triassic of Luoping, Yunnan Province, China. 60.
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