Triassic Armored Marine Reptile Unearthed In China- Prosaurosphargis yingzishanensis

[Prehistory Resurrection]

Link to article:https://www.sci.news/paleontology/prosaurosphargis-yingzishanensis-12178.html

[Halichoeres]

The description seems to be open access (pdf only) here: https://elifesciences.org/articles/83163

Bummer there's no head, although some of its relatives have nice skulls, like Largocephalosaurus.

[Newt]

Remember the early 1990s, when record companies gave up on understanding what their audiences wanted and would sign and promote any gang of weirdos who claimed to be a band? I feel like that's what evolution was doing in the Triassic. The terrestrial Late Triassic faunas that everybody knows were pretty weird, sure, but Early and Middle Triassic faunas were weirder, especially when it comes to marine reptiles, and especially in the seas of South China. This guy? Weirdo. Scleromochlus? Weirdo. Chaohusaurus? Weirdo. Pachypleurosaurs? Weirdos. Thalattosaurs? Weirdos. Hupehsuchians? Weirdos with extra freak sauce. All that and a marine poposauroid makes for quite some strange sea life. No wonder Birgeria looks so buffaloed.



WHAT IS... WHY IS...I JUST CAN'T!

[BlueKrono]

Looks like most other placodonts. Hupehsuchus though, yes, super weird. If I made a line of dinosaur figures that is one I've planned on making.

[Halichoeres]

@Newt I'm gonna need to hear more about this marine poposauroid.

[Newt]

@Halichoeres - that would be the charming fellow known as Qianosuchus mixtus, a 3 meter long, long-necked predator with a deep, sculling tail (it should be noted that the aquatic adaptations identified by the authors have not been universally accepted, and even though the animal is known only from marine sediments it is conceivably a terrestrial form).

Original (brief) description by Li et al. 2006.

Holotype:


Skeletal by Calamacow75:


Recovered as a basal poposauroid by Nesbitt 2011.

[DinoToyForum]

Looks like most other placodonts. Hupehsuchus though, yes, super weird. If I made a line of dinosaur figures that is one I've planned on making.

I saw Hupesuchus fossils in person when I visited some museums in China. Such unusual animals. There's a touch of 'ichthyosauryness' about them and some researchers have suggested they might be close relatives.

[Halichoeres]

@Newt amazing, thank you so much!