Mollesaurus
Extinct genus of reptiles
title: "Mollesaurus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ophthalmosaurinae", "middle-jurassic-ichthyosaurs", "bajocian-life", "middle-jurassic-reptiles-of-south-america", "jurassic-argentina", "fossils-of-argentina", "neuquén-basin", "fossil-taxa-described-in-1999", "ichthyosauromorph-genera", "ichthyosaurs-of-south-america"] description: "Extinct genus of reptiles" topic_path: "geography/argentina" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollesaurus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Extinct genus of reptiles ::
| name = Mollesaurus | fossil_range = Middle Jurassic, | genus = Mollesaurus | display_parents = 2 | parent_authority = Fernández, 1999 | authority = Fernández, 1999 | species = periallus | synonyms =
- Ophthalmosaurus periallus Maisch & Matzke, 2000
Mollesaurus is an extinct genus of large ophthalmosaurine ichthyosaur known from northwestern Patagonia of Argentina.
Etymology
Mollesaurus was named by Marta S. Fernández in 1999 and the type species is Mollesaurus periallus. The generic name is derived from the name of the Los Molles Formation, where the holotype was collected, and sauros, Greek for "lizard". The specific name is derived from periallos, Greek for "before all others", in reference to the fact that it is the oldest ophthalmosaurid and one of the oldest thunnosaurs.
History of study
Mollesaurus is known from the holotype MOZ 2282 V, articulated partial skeleton which preserved partial skull and most of the vertebral column. It was collected in the Chacaico Sur locality from the Emileia giebeli ammonoid zone of the Los Molles Formation, Cuyo Group, dating to the early Bajocian stage of the Middle Jurassic, about 171.6-170 million years ago. Mollesaurus, along with Chacaicosaurus cayi which was found at the same locality, are the only diagnostic ichthyosaur specimens from the Aalenian-Bathonian interval. It was found near Zapala city of the Neuquén Basin.
Maisch and Matzke (2000) regarded Mollesaurus to be a species of Ophthalmosaurus. However, all recent cladistic analyses found that Mollesaurus is a valid genus of ophthalmosaurid. Patrick S. Druckenmiller and Erin E. Maxwell (2010) found it to be the basalmost member of the ophthalmosaurid lineage that included Brachypterygius, Caypullisaurus and Platypterygius (but not Ophthalmosaurus).
Phylogeny
The following cladogram shows a possible phylogenetic position of Mollesaurus in Ophthalmosauridae according to the analysis performed by Zverkov and Jacobs (2020).
|label1=Ophthalmosauria |1={{clade |1={{clade |label1=Ophthalmosaurinae |1={{clade |1={{clade |1={{clade |1={{clade |1=Acamptonectes densus
|2={{clade |1=Mollesaurus periallus
|2={{clade |1=Ophthalmosaurus natans |2=Ophthalmosaurus icenicus |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Gengasaurus nicosiai
|2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Nannopterygius yasykovi |2={{clade |1=Nannopterygius enthekiodon |2=Nannopterygius saveljeviensis |3=Nannopterygius borealis |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Arthropterygius volgensis |2={{clade |1=Arthropterygius lundi |2=Arthropterygius thalassonotus |3={{clade |1=Arthropterygius hoybergeti |2=Arthropterygius chrisorum
|label2=Platypterygiinae |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Brachypterygius extremus |2=Aegirosaurus leptospondylus
|3={{clade |1=Muiscasaurus catheti
|2={{clade |1=Leninia stellans
|2={{clade |1=Sveltonectes insolitus
|2={{clade |1=Athabascasaurus bitumineus
|2={{clade |1=Platypterygius americanus
|2={{clade |1={{clade |1=Acuetzpalin carranzai |2=Platypterygius sachicarum |3=Caypullisaurus bonapartei |2={{clade |1={{clade |1={{clade |1=Grendelius mordax |2=Grendelius alekseevi |3=Grendelius pseudoscythicus |4=Grendelius zhuravlevi |2={{clade |1={{clade |1={{clade |1=Undorosaurus kielanae |2={{clade |1=Undorosaurus nessovi |2=Undorosaurus gorodischensis |3={{clade |1=Platypterygius australis |2={{clade |1=Plutoniosaurus bedengensis |2=Simbirskiasaurus birjukovi |3=Platypterygius hercynicus |4=Sisteronia seeleyi |5=Platypterygius platydactylus |6=Maiaspondylus lindoei
References
References
- Fernández, Marta S.. (1999). "A new ichthyosaur from the Los Molles Formation (Early Bajocian), Neuquen Basin, Argentina". Journal of Paleontology.
- (2000). "The Ichthyosauria". Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde.
- Patrick S. Druckenmiller. (2010). "A new Lower Cretaceous (lower Albian) ichthyosaur genus from the Clearwater Formation, Alberta, Canada". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.
- Fischer, Valentin. (2011). "A new Barremian (Early Cretaceous) ichthyosaur from western Russia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
- (2012). "New Ophthalmosaurid Ichthyosaurs from the European Lower Cretaceous Demonstrate Extensive Ichthyosaur Survival across the Jurassic–Cretaceous Boundary". PLOS ONE.
- (2021). "Revision of ''Nannopterygius'' (Ichthyosauria: Ophthalmosauridae): reappraisal of the 'inaccessible' holotype resolves a taxonomic tangle and reveals an obscure ophthalmosaurid lineage with a wide distribution". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
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