Aphrosaurus

Aphrosaurus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 70-66 Ma
↓
Life restoration
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Reptilia
Superorder:
Sauropterygia
Order:
Plesiosauria
Family:
Elasmosauridae
Genus:
Aphrosaurus
Species
  • Aphrosaurus furlongi Welles, 1943 (type) Welles

Aphrosaurus was an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Maastrichtian. The type species is Aphrosaurus furlongi (LACM 2748), named by Welles in 1943.[1] The holotype specimen was discovered in the Moreno Formation in Fresno County, California in 1939 by rancher Frank C. Piava.[2] A second specimen - LACM 2832 - was also found in the same formation and initially diagnosed as a juvenile of the same species, but has since been removed from the genus.[3]

  1. ^ Welles, Samuel (1943). "Elasmosaurid Plesiosaurs, with Description of New Material from California and Colorado". Memoirs of the University of California. 13.
  2. ^ Hilton, Richard P. (2003). Dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles of California. Ken Kirkland. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-92845-9. OCLC 574319877.
  3. ^ O’Gorman, Jose P. (3 September 2019). "Elasmosaurid phylogeny and paleobiogeography, with a reappraisal of Aphrosaurus furlongi from the Maastrichtian of the Moreno Formation". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 39 (5): e1692025. Bibcode:2019JVPal..39E2025O. doi:10.1080/02724634.2019.1692025. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 215756238.