Ophthalmosaurinae

Ophthalmosaurines Temporal range: Middle Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, 171.6–99.6 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Ophthalmosaurus icenicus skeleton at Natural History Museum, London
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	†Ichthyosauria
Family:	†Ophthalmosauridae
Subfamily:	†Ophthalmosaurinae Baur, 1887
Genera
†Acamptonectes †Arthropterygius †Baptanodon †Gengasaurus †Jabalisaurus †Mollesaurus †Nannopterygius †Ophthalmosaurus †Thalassodraco

Ophthalmosaurinae is an extinct subfamily of ophthalmosaurid thunnosaur ichthyosaurs from the Middle Jurassic to the late Early Cretaceous (Bajocian - Albian) of Europe, North America and South America. Currently, the oldest and the basalmost, known as ophthalmosaurine is Mollesaurus from the early Bajocian of Argentina. Ophthalmosaurines were characterized by a large extracondylar area of the basioccipital in the form of a thick and concave peripheral band, posterodistally deflected ulnar facet of the humerus, large ulna with concave and edgy posterior surface and ischiopubis with obturator foramen.^[1]

Phylogeny

Ophthalmosaurinae was named in 1887 by George H. Baur. It is a stem-based taxon defined phylogenetically for the first time by Fischer et al. (2012) as "all taxa closer to Ophthalmosaurus icenicus than to Platypterygius hercynicus". The cladogram below follows Fischer et al. 2012.^[1]

The following cladogram shows Ophthalmosaurinae, according to the analysis performed by Jacobs and Martill (2020).^[2]

References

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