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Iserosaurus

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Iserosaurus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 90 Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Family: Protostegidae
Genus: Iserosaurus
Type species
Iserosaurus littoralis
Fritsch, 1905

Iserosaurus is an extinct genus of sea turtle from the Late Cretaceous of Czech Republic.

Taxonomy

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Iserosaurus was originally described as a new taxon of mosasauroid by Fritsch (1905) on the basis of a disarticulated skeleton from Turonian-age chalk deposits in Bohemia, Czech Republic.[1][2] However, Persson (1963) tentatively listed it as a dubious plesiosaur in his overview of plesiosaur classification.[3] Karl (2002) recognized Iserosaurus as being a protostegid turtle and assigned it to cf. Archelon.[4] Kear et al. (2013) agreed with Karl (2002) that Iserosaurus is a marine turtle but noted differences from Archelon, so assigned the genus to Protostegidae indet.[5]

References

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  1. ^ FRITSCH, A. 1905a. Synopsis der Saurier der böhm. Kreideformation. Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Böhmischen Gesellschaft derWissenschaften, Classe MathematischNaturwissenschaftliche 1905(8), 1–7.
  2. ^ FRITSCH, A. 1905b. Vorläufige Notiz über Miscellanea palaeontologica aus Böhmen und America. Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Böhmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Classe MathematischNaturwissenschaftliche 21, 1–3.
  3. ^ PERSSON, P. O. 1963. A revision of the classification of the Plesiosauria with a synopsis of the stratigraphical and geographical distribution of the group. Lunds Universitet Årsskrift 65, 1–23.
  4. ^ KARL, H.-V. 2002. Übersicht über die fossilen marinen Schildkrötenfamilien Zentraleuropas (Reptilia, Testudines). Mauritiana (Altenburg) 18, 171–202.
  5. ^ Kear, B.P., Ekrt, B., Prokop, J. & Georgalis, G.L. (2014) Turonian marine amniotes from the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, Czech Republic. Geological Magazine, 151, 183–198.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756813000502