Tanytrachelos

Tanytrachelos
Temporal range: Late Triassic,
Carnian
A specimen of Tanytrachelos
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Clade: †Tanysauria
Family: †Tanystropheidae
Genus: †Tanytrachelos
Olsen, 1979
Type species
†Tanytrachelos ahynis
Olsen, 1979
Synonyms
A "type A" Tanytrachelos, believed to be a female.

Tanytrachelos is an extinct genus of tanystropheid archosauromorph reptile from the Late Triassic of the eastern United States.[1] It contains a single species, Tanytrachelos ahynis, which is known from several hundred fossil specimens preserved in the Solite Quarry in Cascade, Virginia. Abundant fossils of Tanytrachelos are found in a series of lakebed sediments that were deposited over the course of about 350 thousand years in a lake which existed approximately 230 million years ago. Some fossils are very well-preserved and include the remains of soft tissues.[2][3] Tanytrachelos is the most likely trackmaker of the ichnogenus Gwyneddichnium.[4]

Tanytrachelos remains have also been found in the Chinle Formation of Arizona[5] and the Lockatong Formation of New Jersey.[6]

  1. ^ Olsen, Paul E. (1979). "A new aquatic Eosuchian from the Newark Supergroup (Late Triassic–Early Jurassic) of North Carolina and Virginia" (PDF). Postilla. 176: 1–14.
  2. ^ Casey, M. M.; Fraser, N. C.; Kowalewski, M. (2007). "Quantitative taphonomy of a Triassic reptile Tanytrachelos ahynis from the Cow Branch Formation, Dan River Basin, Solite Quarry, Virginia". PALAIOS. 22 (6): 598. Bibcode:2007Palai..22..598C. doi:10.2110/palo.2006.p06-010r. hdl:10919/32503. S2CID 128741450.
  3. ^ Smith, Omega (formerly "Amy C.") (11 April 2011). Description of Tanytrachelos ahynis and its implications for the phylogeny of Protorosauria (Dissertation). Virginia Tech. hdl:10919/37652.
  4. ^ Lucas, Spencer G.; Szajna, Michael J.; Lockley, Martin G.; Fillmore, David L.; Simpson, Edward L.; Klein, Hendrik; Boyland, Jack; Hartline, Brian W. (2014). "The middle-late Triassic tetrapod footprint ichnogenus Gwyneddichnium". New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science Bulletin. 62: 135–156.
  5. ^ Irmis, Randall B. (2005). The vertebrate fauna of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation in northern Arizona (PDF). Mesa Southwest Museum. pp. 63–88. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-10-04.
  6. ^ Schein, Jason P.; Parris, David C.; Pellegrini, Rodrigo (2010). A complete and articulated Tanytrachelos ahynis (Reptilia: Protorosauroidea) from the Late Triassic Lockatong Formation of northern New Jersey, U.S.A. (Poster).