Simosaurus gaillardoti Meyer, 1842 a

Sues, Hans-Dieter & Schoch, Rainer R., 2025, Synopsis of the Triassic reptiles from Germany, Fossil Record 28 (2), pp. 411-483 : 411-483

Simosaurus gaillardoti Meyer, 1842 a

Neotype.

The holotype of Simosaurus gaillardoti designated by Meyer (1842) from the Calcaire à Cératites (Upper Muschelkalk Subgroup) near Lunéville in Lorraine ( France) can no longer be located. Rieppel (2000) and De Miguel Chavez et al. (2018) cited MNHN.F.AC.9028 , another cranium from Lunéville, as the neotype of S. gaillardoti .

Referred material (from Germany).

See Rieppel (1994 a). SMNS 16700 ( holotype of Simosaurus guilelmi Meyer, 1852 ) is from the Hoheneck-Kalk of the Erfurt Formation (Lower Keuper Subgroup) of Ludwigsburg-Hoheneck, Baden-Württemberg.

Diagnosis.

Distinguished by the following combination of features: skull brevirostrine (Fig. 7 A, B ); snout without constriction; tooth crowns broad and blunt, distinctly set off from tooth bases; enamel distinctly striated; supratemporal fossae much large than orbits; parietal foramen displaced posteriorly; craniomandibular joints well behind occipital condyle; occiput deeply excavated; squamosal with distinct lateral process; vertebrae platycoelous, each with infraprezygapophyses and infrapostzygapophyses in addition to zygosphene and zygantrum; clavicle with short anterolateral process; humerus lacking entepicondylar foramen; and ulna with broad proximal end (Rieppel 1994; Fig. 7 A, B ).

References.

Meyer (1842 a, 1847–1855), O. Fraas (1881), F. Huene (1921 a, 1952, 1959), Kuhn-Schnyder (1961), Schultze (1970), Rieppel (1994 a, 2000), De Miguel Chaves et al. (2018), London et al. (2025).

Figures

Figure 7. Reptiles from the Muschelkalk Group. A, B. Simosaurid eosauropterygian Simosaurus gaillardoti (SMNS 10360), cranium in dorsal (A) and ventral (B) view. Scale bar: 5 cm. C, D. Nothosaurid eosauropterygian Nothosaurus mirabilis (SMNS 16433), cranium in in dorsal (C) and ventral (D) view. Scale bar: 5 cm.