Learning Center What is a mineral?The most common minerals on earth Information for Educators Mindat Articles The Elements The Rock H. Currier Digital Library Geologic Time

Minerals by Properties Minerals by Chemistry Advanced Locality Search Random Mineral Random Locality Search by minID Localities Near Me Search Articles Search Glossary More Search Options

The Mindat Manual Add a New Photo Rate Photos Locality Edit Report Coordinate Completion Report Add Glossary Item

Mining Companies Statistics Users Mineral Museums Clubs & Organizations Mineral Shows & Events The Mindat Directory Device Settings The Mineral Quiz

Photo Search Photo Galleries Search by Color New Photos Today New Photos Yesterday Members' Photo Galleries Past Photo of the Day Gallery Photography

BETA TEST - Fossil data and pages are very much experimental and under development. Please report any problems

Styxosaurus ✝

Photos

Photo Gallery

Description

Styxosaurus is a genus of plesiosaur of the family Elasmosauridae. Styxosaurus lived during the Campanian age of the Cretaceous period.

From Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styxosaurus, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

Source Data

Source	ID	Link
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ID (GBIF)	4823561	https://www.gbif.org/species/4823561
PaleoBioDB ID (PBDB)	36516	https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=36516

Rank

genus

Taxonomy (GBIF)

Life : Animalia : Chordata : Reptilia : Elasmosauridae : Styxosaurus

Taxonomy (PBDB)

Life : Animalia : Chordata : Reptilia : Sauropterygia : Elasmosauridae : Styxosaurus

Taxonomic Status (GBIF)

accepted

Classification
(PBDB,GBIF)

Rank	Name	Author
-	Eukaryota
-	Opisthokonta	Cavalier-Smith 1987
kingdom	Animalia
-	Triploblastica	Lankester 1877
-	Nephrozoa	Jondelius et al. 2002
-	Deuterostomia	Grobben 1908
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1847
subphylum	Vertebrata	Lamarck 1801
superclass	Gnathostomata	Gegenbauer 1874
-	Osteichthyes
-	Sarcopterygii	Romer 1955
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha
-	Tetrapoda
-	Reptiliomorpha	Säve-Söderbergh 1934
-	Anthracosauria	Säve-Söderbergh 1934
-	Batrachosauria
-	Cotylosauria
-	Amniota	Haeckel 1866
-	Sauropsida	Huxley 1864
class	Reptilia	Laurenti 1768
subclass	Eureptilia
-	Romeriida	Gauthier et al. 1988
-	Diapsida
order	Sauropterygia	Owen 1861
-	Pistosauria
-	Plesiosauria
superfamily	Plesiosauroidea	Welles 1943
-	Cryptoclidia	Ketchum and Benson 2010
-	Xenopsaria	Benson and Druckenmiller 2014
family	Elasmosauridae	Cope 1869
subfamily	Styxosaurinae	Otero 2016
genus	Styxosaurus	Welles 1943

Scientific Name

Styxosaurus Welles, 1943

Name Published In

Mem. Univ. Calif., 13 (3)

Opinions (PBDB)

Name	Rank	Opinion	Evidence	Author
Styxosaurus	genus	belongs to Elasmosauridae	stated with evidence	Welles, 1943
Styxosaurus	genus	belongs to Elasmosauridae	stated without evidence	Welles, 1949
Styxosaurus	genus	belongs to Alzadasaurinae	stated with evidence	Welles, 1962
Styxosaurus	genus	belongs to Elasmosauridae	implied	Carroll, 1988
Styxosaurus	genus	belongs to Elasmosauridae	stated with evidence	Carpenter, 1999
Styxosaurus	genus	belongs to Plesiosauria	second hand	Sepkoski, 2002
Styxosaurus	genus	belongs to Elasmosauridae	stated with evidence	Ketchum and Benson, 2010
Styxosaurus	genus	belongs to Styxosaurinae	stated with evidence	Otero, 2016

Status (PBDB)

extinct

Taxon Size (PBDB)

First Recorded Appearance

89.3 - 70.6 Ma
Late/Upper Cretaceous

Last Recorded Appearance

83.5 - 70.6 Ma
Late/Upper Cretaceous

Environment

marine (based on Plesiosauria)

Motility

actively mobile (based on Plesiosauria)

Diet

carnivore (based on Plesiosauria)

Reproduction

viviparous (based on Plesiosauria)

Taphonomy

hydroxylapatite (based on Plesiosauria)

Primary Reference (PBDB)

S. P. Welles. 1943. Elasmosaurid plesiosaurs with description of new material from California and Colorado. Memoirs of the University of California 13:125-254

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styxosaurus

Fossil Distribution

Subtaxa

Name	Status	Common Name(s)	Fossil Occurrences	Oldest	Youngest
Cimoliasaurus snowii ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)		4	83.5 Ma Late/Upper Cretaceous	83.5 Ma Late/Upper Cretaceous
Styxosaurus browni ✝ species	accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB)		2	83.5 Ma Late/Upper Cretaceous	83.5 Ma Late/Upper Cretaceous

Obsolete Names

Name	Source	Taxon Rank	Taxonomy
Elasmosaurus serpentinus (Cope, 1877)	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Reptilia : Elasmosauridae : *Elasmosaurus serpentinus*
Elasmosaurus marshi Williston, 1906	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Reptilia : Elasmosauridae : *Elasmosaurus marshi*
Thalassonomosaurus marshi (Williston, 1906)	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Reptilia : Elasmosauridae : *Thalassonomosaurus marshi*
Hydralmosaurus serpentinus (Cope, 1877)	GBIF	species	Animalia : Chordata : Reptilia : Elasmosauridae : *Hydralmosaurus serpentinus*

Synonymy List

Year	Name and Author
1877	Elasmosaurus serpentinus Cope p. 578
1902	Elasmosaurus serpentinus Hay p. 458
1903	Elasmosaurus serpentinus Williston p. 9
1906	Elasmosaurus serpentinus Williston p. 228
1906	Elasmosaurus marshii Williston pp. 229-231 fig. 4
1939	Elasmosaurus serpentinus Riggs
1940	Hydralmosaurus serpentinus Welles p. 51
1943	Hydralmosaurus Welles
1943	Styxosaurus Welles
1943	Thalassonomosaurus marshi Welles
1943	Thalassonomosaurus marshii Welles
1943	Hydralmosaurus Welles pp. 185-186 fig. 29
1943	Hydralmosaurus serpentinus Welles p. 185
1943	Styxosaurus Welles p. 188 fig. 31
1949	Hydralmosaurus Welles
1949	Hydralmosaurus serpentinus Welles
1949	Styxosaurus Welles

Year	Name and Author
1962	Hydralmosaurus serpentinus Welles pp. 3 & 68
1962	Hydralmosaurus Welles p. 4
1962	Styxosaurus Welles p. 4
1988	Hydralmosaurus Carroll
1988	Styxosaurus Carroll
1999	Hydralmosaurus serpentinus Carpenter p. 153
1999	Styxosaurus Carpenter p. 158 fig. 15
1999	Hydralmosaurus Carpenter p. 168 fig. 15
1999	Hydralmosaurus Storrs p. 5
1999	Hydralmosaurus serpentinus Storrs p. 5
2001	Styxosaurus O'Keefe p. 19 fig. 20
2002	Hydralmosaurus Sepkoski, Jr.
2002	Styxosaurus Sepkoski, Jr.
2010	Styxosaurus Ketchum and Benson p. 15 fig. 6
2012	Styxosaurus Otero et al.
2016	Styxosaurus Otero

References

Welles S. P. (1943) Elasmosaurid plesiosaurs with description of new material from California and Colorado, Memoirs of the University of California 13, 125-254

Cope E. D. Report on the geology of the region of the Judith River, Montana, and on vertebrate fossils obtained on or near the Missouri River, Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey 3 3, 565-597

Hay O. P. (1902) , Bibliography and Catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America. Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey 179, 1-868

Williston S. W. (1903) North American plesiosaurs, part 1, Geological Series Field Museum of Natural History 3 1, 1-77

Williston S. W. (1906) North American plesiosaurs: Elasmosaurus, Cimoliasaurus, and Polycotylus, The American Journal of Science, series 4 21, 221-236

Welles S. P. (1940) , Revision of Elasmosaurid Plesiosaurs, 1-78

Welles S. P. (1949) A new elasmosaur from the Eagle Ford Shale of Texas, Fondren Science Series 1, 1-28

Welles S. P. (1962) A new species of elasmosaur from the Aptian of Colombia and a review of the Cretaceous plesiosaurs, University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 44 1, 1-96

Carroll R. L. (1988) , Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution, 1-698

Carpenter K. (1999) Revision of North American elasmosaurs from the Cretaceous of the Western Interior, Paludicola 2 2, 148-173

Storrs G. W. (1999) An examination of Plesiosauria (Diapsida: Sauropterygia) from the Niobrara Chalk (Upper Cretaceous) of Central North America, Paleontological Contributions of the University of Kansas 11, 1-15

O'Keefe F. R. (2001) A cladistic analysis and taxonomic revision of the Plesiosauria (Reptilia: Sauropterygia), Acta Zoologica Fennica 213, 1-63

Sepkoski, Jr. J. J. (2002) A compendium of fossil marine animal genera, Bulletins of American Paleontology 363, 1-560

Ketchum H. F., Benson R. B. J. (2010) Global interrelationships of Plesiosauria (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) and the pivotal role of taxon sampling in determining the outcome of phylogenetic analyses, Biological Reviews 85, 361-392 doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.2009.00107.x

Otero R. A., Soto-Acuña S., et al (2012) A postcranial skeleton of an elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the Maastrichtian of central Chile, with comments on the affinities of Late Cretaceous plesiosauroids from the Weddellian Biogeographic Province, Cretaceous Research 37, 89-99

Otero R. A. (2016) Taxonomic reassessment of Hydralmosaurus as Styxosaurus: new insights on the elasmosaurid neck evolution throughout the Cretaceous, PeerJ 4, e1777:1-60 doi:10.7717/peerj.1777

GBIF/Paleo Database - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

Nomenclator Zoologicus. A list of the names of genera and subgenera in zoology from the tenth edition of Linnaeus, 1758 to the end of 2004. Digitised by uBio from vols. 1-9 of Neave (ed.), 1939-1996 plus supplementary digital-only volume. http://ubio.org/NomenclatorZoologicus (as at 2006). - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

Sepkoski, J. J., Jr. (2002). A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology. 363, 1-560. - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

Mem. Univ. Calif., 13 (3) - via The Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

Data courtesy of: PBDB: The Paleobiology Database, Creative Commons CC-BY licenced. , GBIF: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, various licences, iDigBio, various licences, and EOL: The Encyclopedia of Life (Open Data Public Domain). Because fossils are made of minerals too!

Quick NavTop Fossil Distribution Subtaxa Obsolete Names Synonymy List References

Mindat.org is an outreach project of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2024, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: April 26, 2024 10:46:45

Go to top of page