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New Nothosaurus skulls from the Lower Muschelkalk of the western Lower Saxony Basin (Winterswijk, the Netherlands) shed new light on the status of Nothosaurus winterswijkensis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

P.C.H. Albers
P.C.H. Albers*
Affiliation:
Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands. Email: palbers@xs4all.nl.

Abstract

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Three nothosaur skulls from the Lower Muschelkalk (Lower Anisian) locality of Winterswijk, the Netherlands, were recently acquired by museum Twentse Welle (Enschede) and have thereby become available for scientific description. Thus, these skulls had been identified as Nothosaurus winterswijkensis, but upon examination these skulls challenge the status of this Nothosaurus species. All diagnostic characters are somehow discredited, but the material can also not be unequivocably be considered as Nothosaurus marchicus, which is the only other obvious candidate. As these fossils originate from the same strata as the type of Nothosaurus winterswijkensis and there is no reason to assume that the animals occupied different ecological niches they are more plausibly considered one species, and Nothosaurus winterswijkensis therefore becomes a junior synonym of Nothosaurus marchicus. The diagnosis of Nothosaurus marchicus is enlarged to include all finds.

Keywords

Nothosaurus winterswijkensisNothosaurus marchicusrevision
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 90 , Issue 1 , August 2011 , pp. 15 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2011

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