Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T03:23:14.845Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Ichthyosaurus breviceps collected by Mary Anning: new information on the species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2013

JUDY A. MASSARE  and
DEAN R. LOMAX
JUDY A. MASSARE*
Affiliation:
Department of the Earth Sciences, SUNY College at Brockport, Brockport, NY 14420, USA
DEAN R. LOMAX
Affiliation:
Doncaster Museum & Art Gallery, Chequer Rd, Doncaster DN1 2AE, UK School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
*
†Author for correspondence: jmassare@brockport.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An ichthyosaur in the collections of the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge (CAMSMX.50187) was collected in the nineteenth century by the renowned fossil collector Mary Anning, but has never been adequately described in the literature. As an Anning specimen, it is certainly from the Lower Jurassic of Lyme Regis, west Dorset. The near complete presacral skeleton is lying on its left side and includes a complete skull, one complete and one partial forefin, pectoral bones, all six elements of the pelvic girdle, and both hindfins. The centra in the anterior caudal region, however, are from another individual and may have replaced the original ones. The specimen is identified as Ichthyosaurus based on the morphology of the humerus and forefin. It is assigned to I. breviceps on the basis of the relatively short snout, large eye, and tall neural spines. This is the only known specimen of I. breviceps to preserve a complete pelvis. Notably, the ilium is longer than the pubis and ischium, and the pubis is longer than the ischium. This individual is the largest I. breviceps reported in the literature, with jaw length of 33.5 cm and estimated length from snout to tail bend of 1.6 m.

Keywords

Lower JurassicLyme RegisIchthyopterygiaIchthyosauriaIchthyosaurus
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 151 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 21 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Buchholtz, E. A. 2001. Swimming styles in Jurassic ichthyosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21, 61–73.Google Scholar
Lang, W. D. 1945. Three letters of Mary Anning, “Fossilist,” of Lyme. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 66, 169–73.Google Scholar
Lomax, D. R. & Massare, J. M. 2012. The first reported Leptonectes (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) with associated embryos, from Somerset, England. Paludicola 8, 263–76.Google Scholar
Maisch, M. W. & Matzke, A. T. 2000. The Ichthyosauria. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B 298, 1–159.Google Scholar
Massare, J. A., Buchholtz, E. A., Kenney, J. & Chomat, A. M. 2006. Vertebral morphology of Ophthalmosaurus natans (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) from the Jurassic Sundance Formation of Wyoming. Paludicola, 5, 242–54.Google Scholar
Maxwell, E. E., Zammit, M. & Druckenmiller, P. S. 2012. Morphology and orientation of the ichthyosaurian femur. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32, 1207–11.Google Scholar
McGowan, C. 1973. Differential growth in three ichthyosaurs: Ichthyosaurus communis, I. breviceps, and Stenopterygius quadriscissus (Reptilia, Ichthyosauria). Life Science Contributions, Royal Ontario Museum 20, 1–20.Google Scholar
McGowan, C. 1974 a. A revision of the Longipinnate ichthyosaurs of the Lower Jurassic of England, with descriptions of two new species (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria). Life Sciences Contributions, Royal Ontario Museum 97, 1–37.Google Scholar
McGowan, C. 1974 b. A revision of the Latipinnate ichthyosaurs of the Lower Jurassic of England (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria). Life Sciences Contributions, Royal Ontario Museum 100, 1–30.Google Scholar
McGowan, C. & Motani, R. 2003. Handbook of Paleoherpetology, Part 8 Ichthyopterygia. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, Munich, 175 pp.Google Scholar
Motani, R. 1999. On the evolution and homologies of ichthyopterygian forefins. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19, 28–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, R. 1881. Part 3. Ichthyopterygia. In A Monograph of the Fossil Reptilia of the Liassic Formations, pp. 83–134. Palaeontographical Society (Great Britain).Google Scholar
Price, D. 1986. Mary Anning specimens in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. Geological Curator 4, 319–24.Google Scholar
Torrens, H. S. 1995. Mary Anning (1799–1847) of Lyme; ‘the greatest fossilist the world ever knew’. British Journal for the History of Science 28, 257–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar