Ichthyosauriformes
| Ichthyosauriformes | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | †Ichthyosauromorpha |
| Clade: | †Ichthyosauriformes Motani et al., 2014 |
| Subgroups | |
The Ichthyosauriformes are a group of marine
reptiles, belonging to the Ichthyosauromorpha, that lived during the Mesozoic
.
The stem
scleral rings
, filling the eye sockets; a narrow snout in top view; and converging digits with little space between them.
The Ichthyosauriformes probably split off in the Early Triassic, about 250 million years ago; the last known forms lived in the middle Cretaceous. A basal ichthyosauriform is Cartorhynchus; more derived species are part of the Ichthyopterygia which again include the Ichthyosauria.
Literature
- Motani, R., Jiang, D.-Y., Chen, G.-B., Tintori, A., Rieppel, O., Ji, C., and Huang J.-D., 2014, "A basal ichthyosauriform with a short snout from the Lower Triassic of China", Nature. doi:10.1038/nature13866