Neusticosaurus pusillus
Authors/Creators
- 1. Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, MRC 121, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
- 2. Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Rosenstein 1, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany & Institut für Biologie, Universität Hohenheim, Garbenstrasse 30, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
Description
Neusticosaurus pusillus (E. Fraas, 1881)
Holotype.
NHMUK PV R 53, nearly complete skeleton.
Type locality.
Kugelberg at Ludwigsburg-Hoheneck, Stuttgart district, Baden-Württemberg.
Type horizon.
Hoheneck-Kalk, Erfurt Formation, Lower Keuper Subgroup. Age: Middle Triassic (Ladinian: Longobardian).
Referred material.
For a detailed list see Sander (1989). Sander provided a thorough description of this species based primarily on numerous excellently preserved skeletons from the Ladinian-age Cava Inferiore Beds of the Meride Limestone at Monte San Giorgio (Southern Alps of Switzerland).
Diagnosis.
Distinguished by the following combination of features: small size (total body length of up to 52 cm); skull table with parallel lateral margins; orbit proportionately small; supratemporal fossa oval; 22–24 dorsal vertebrae; atlas lacking ribs; and two carpal bones present in adults (Sander 1989).
Comments.
Sander (1989) considered Neusticosaurus pygmaeus E. Fraas, 1896, based on SMNS 53932, a group of three complete and nine partial skeletons from the Hoheneck-Kalk (Fig. 12 A), a subjective junior synonym of N. pusillus.
References.
Seeley (1882), E. Fraas (1896), Sander (1989), Rieppel (2000).
Notes
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Collection code
- NHMUK, PV
- Material sample ID
- R 53
- Scientific name authorship
- E. Fraas
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Order
- Eosauropterygia
- Family
- Pachypleurosauridae
- Genus
- Neusticosaurus
- Species
- pusillus
- Taxon rank
- species
- Type status
- holotype
- Taxonomic concept label
- Neusticosaurus pusillus (Fraas, 1881) sec. Sues & Schoch, 2025
References
- Fraas O (1881) Simosaurus pusillus aus der Lettenkohle von Hoheneck. Jahreshefte des Vereins fur vaterlandische Naturkunde 37: 319-324.
- Fraas E (1896) Die schwa ¨ bischen Trias-Saurier, nach dem Material der Kgl. Naturalien-Sammlung in Stuttgart zusammengestellt. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, 1 - 18.
- Seeley HG (1882) On Neusticosaurus pusillus (Fraas), an amphibious reptile having affinities with the terrestrial Nothosauria and with the marine Plesiosauria. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 38: 350–366. https://doi.org/10.1144/GSL.JGS.1882.038.01-04.39
- Fraas E (1896) Die schwa ̈ bischen Trias-Saurier, nach dem Material der Kgl. Naturalien-Sammlung in Stuttgart zusammengestellt. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, 1–18.
- Rieppel O (2000) Sauropterygia I. Placodontia, Pachypleurosauria, Nothosauroidea, Pistosauroidea. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie Part 12 A. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, Munich, 1–134.